Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on PIX 11's"PIX11 Morning News"

January 30, 2024

John Muller: All right. The battle over the controversial How Many Stops bill, it's coming to a head today as the City Council convenes to override Mayor Adams' veto. 

Hazel Sanchez: Yes, the bill requires NYPD officers to file paperwork on low level exchanges with the public. Mayor Eric Adams and his supporters say the bill would prioritize paperwork over actual police work. Mayor Adams joins us live this morning from Gracie Mansion, and he's also joined by Yanely Henriquez who wrote a letter to the City Council urging them to not override the bill. So, good morning to both of you, and thanks for taking the time to speak with us today. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. 

Yanely Henriquez: Good morning. Thank you. 

Sanchez: Mr. Mayor, there's been a lot of back and forth about how the How Many Stops bill with both sides, accusing the other of spreading misinformation. But you maintain that Level 1 stops should not be included in the bill. 

Mayor Adams: No, not at all. And that was why I brought it out city councilmembers to do ride alongs with police officers so they can get observations on exactly what this bill is. And we use the term How Many Stops, these are not stops. These are inquiries. A person that is part of a Level 1 is free to leave at any time, and it's not the same as stopping someone because of a criminal investigation that you believe they committed a crime. 

And although I think the City Council's concept and hearts were in the right place, we're asking them, let's take time to get this right because we're dealing with public safety and we cannot do anything that's going to impact public safety. 

As Yanely [is] sitting next to me, she lost her daughter to a terrible violent act. Those police officers worked around the clock, spoke with, communicated with hundreds of people, they should be focused on catching people who are harmful in our city. 

Sanchez: So, there seem to be differing interpretations on what a Level 1 stop is. So, do you think maybe the answer to reclassify the different types of stops might help everything out? 

Mayor Adams: And that's a great question. The term Level 1 and the definition was determined by a court. It was a court decision. decision. We can't modify what a Level 1 is, and that is an incredible interaction with a civilian that a police officer is doing. 

So, if someone's mother is suffering from dementia and you're trying to find her, every person that officer communicates with to say "did you see this woman," he has to document that interaction. He has to guess our age, guess her gender, guess her ethnicity, and then write a reason for each one of those stops. 

You speak to a hundred people, or, like in the case of the person who stabbed six people, we communicated with a thousand people. Imagine making that documentation each time you have that interaction. We should be catching the bad guys. 

Sanchez: Mmm. 

Muller: All right. Yanely, we'd like to hear from you a little bit. You lost your 16 year old daughter to gun violence almost two years ago. Now, you wrote to the City Council hoping to change their minds about passing the bill. Tell us what prompted you to do this. 

Henriquez: Because we need cops to do their work, not file paperwork, not sit there for hours doing an incident report. Because like Major Adams said, if you have to speak to a thousand people, how many hours do you sit there? 

So, whoever committed a crime or anything like that has a window that he can run away, you know, and you're not going to be able to, you know, be able to catch the person on time. 

Like for my daughter example. The incident happened at around two o'clock in the afternoon, and he didn't get caught to the next day at 10 o'clock at night. And we're talking about a lot of hours. So, if they're doing all this paperwork instead of going out, he could have been caught way before. 

So, there's no need, you know, to be documenting so many hours of paperwork. They have body cams. They have all that information, and all that they can do, like, technology this day is over the roof. Put it in a USB or transfer it to a computer and go outside and continue to do your job. 

Because I feel police officers are not secretaries. They need to be in the streets making sure that any family don't go through the same thing my family went through. 

Sanchez: Well, Mayor Adams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams stopped by the PIX 11 Morning News yesterday. Let's listen to what she said, had to say about the How Many Stops bill. 

[Video plays.] 

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams: Conversations around this legislation should have happened between the administration, NYPD and the council long before passage of the bill. The NYPD actually did have input on this bill, talking about this bill like it is going to create undue responsibility, undue paperwork. We're talking about the most technologically savvy police department on the planet. 

[Video ends.] 

Sanchez: So, Mayor Adams, do you think you have enough time to change their mind, that vote today? 

Mayor Adams: Well, and there were a lot of conversations. We made a good effort of showing how much time this is going to consume. And I think what's really being lost in the conversation is that many people don't realize the number of interactions police officers have with civilians. 

And when you just, just believe that, okay, just go to a simple app or any other simple ways, that is fine if you're dealing with one person. We have 8.5 million interactions on 911 and 311 calls. Those 8.5 million, if you multiply even a low estimate of one minute, those 8.5 million minutes that officers are not out doing police work, they're doing some form of documentation that's already, mind you, documented on the body cameras. 

We fought for that. This is what I committed my life to do, getting justice and public safety. They go together, and we could accomplish that. 

Muller: Mayor, I wanted to ask you, you had that ride along this weekend, the FD...NYPD, excuse me, ride along. Do you think it changed the minds of any of the City Council people who actually took part? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, I think that if the City Council people were able to vote with their hearts, they know their districts don't believe in the Level 1 aspects of this bill. Many of them came to me after and said, you know, this is really an eye opener. I wish we would have had ride alongs earlier. 

And so we may not have changed their votes, but I think we changed their hearts, and that leaves a room of opportunity because the bill is not actually implemented. The law is not implemented until some time in July. I say, let's use this opportunity to amend one part of the bill. I support the concept of this bill. We can fix the one part that I think will really be challenging for our public safety, the success that we have experienced thus far in the city. 

Sanchez: All right. Mayor Adams, thanks so much for your time, and Yanely Henriquez as well. We appreciate your time. 

Henriquez: Thank you so much. 

Muller: Thank you both. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. 

Henriquez: Thank you. Have a good one. Bye bye. 

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