Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears On WABC 7’s “Eyewitness News Mornings At 10”

January 30, 2024

Mike Marza: Let's talk about the big story that we've been mentioning all morning long. There's a rally underway now for the How Many Stops Act. Advocates calling for transparency as this would force the NYPD to document based on their encounters with civilians. 

So, advocates are saying that this would be, simply be a dropdown menu, but the NYPD put out a video saying this could add maybe three minutes to every single encounter they have with the public. 

So, there's this rally underway to support the bill. The mayor vetoed it, but now the council expected to vote this afternoon to override that veto. We'll hear from Mayor Adams in just a moment because we interviewed him about this. But here is a new interview from that rally taking place right now at City Hall. 

[Video plays.] 

New Yorker: We are here today to shut down that campaign of lies and override the mayor's shameful veto. [Cheers] 

Communities that have been the most impacted by the NYPD's unconstitutional stop and frisk practices and racial profiling have been calling for this level of transparency the How Many Stops Act will provide for years. 

New Yorker: We demand an override. 

Crowd: We demand an override. 

New Yorker: Mayor Adams. 

Crowd: Mayor Adams. 

New Yorker: Lies, lies, lies. 

Crowd: Lies, lies, lies. 

[Video ends.]  

Marza: All right. Joining us now to talk about all of this is Mayor Adams. Mayor Adams, welcome back to Mornings here at 10. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Good to be back. 

Marza: So, I know you've been working to rally support as we enter this vote in the City Council later on today. How confident are you that you have been able to get enough support to prevent the override of your veto? 

Mayor Adams: Well, I'm confident that I did my job. My job was to look at any bill that comes in front of me, and if I believe is harmful to the city in general, but specifically, public safety, that I'm going to veto it.  

I educated the public. I took the councilpersons on the ride along with police officers to see the operationalizing of this and now the council must deliberate and make a determination what's best for the City of New York. 

Marza: If the council does not agree with you and this bill moves forward and is implemented this summer, what happens next? 

Mayor Adams: Well, there's several options that we could put in place if that were to happen. One, we don't have to implement this law until July. I would hope that during the time of now, after the determination to override the veto, we will have an opportunity to sit down, talk and look at the aspect of the bill that is troublesome to us. 

I support the concept of these documentation because transparency is important, but when it comes down to these Level 1 stops, these are stops that are similar to if someone's parents were suffering from dementia. Every individual that that officer asks did they see these parents because they're wandering in the streets, that has to be documented. 

That is the type of documentation that we're talking about and we're saying that it's too burdensome to the Police Department. Every second should be used for public protection, not filling out paperwork and documentations. 

Marza: As we kind of get into the weeds on how all of this may go, as New Yorkers, so busy so often.  And so my question is, in a scenario where, say, an officer is asking somebody questions, did you see this? What did this person look like? What did you witness? 

And say, the New Yorker is busy and wants to just get on with their day. What happens with that report part of this? Does the officer guess sort of the components, the demographical information that this bill is aiming to obtain? What happens with the officer's process in that point? 

Mayor Adams: And that's a great question, because we've done so much to build relationships between police and communities that we don't want to erode that. 

If an officer stops someone or interacts with someone to say, did you see this missing person, or this person is suffering from dementia, that person has the right to walk and leave, but that officer still has to guess the person's agenda, his ethnicity, has to write down the reason that he interacted with that person. So, he still has to document that. 

We saw that in the situation where a person was wanted for stabbing six people, we communicated with over a thousand people. Each one of those interactions, we had to document. That is just not the right concept behind this bill that I think the City Council was seeking to accomplish. 

Marza: I'm thinking about some of the security challenges and the safety challenges that the city is now facing. And when you talk about officers, particularly in the subway where we see some felony assault numbers and those on the rise and you have a flood of officers in the system. We just had Mr. Kemper on last week discussing the issue in the subway. 

So, my question is, are you concerned at all that these officers would either, one, be reluctant to approach, say somebody sleeping on the platform or sleeping in the subway system, or at the very least, be distracted with this paperwork process that they wouldn't have the opportunity to fully go into these subway systems and the stations to be able to vet exactly what's happening? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, there's a lot of dynamics that go into public safety, and that's why I had the City Councils and asked them to come out and do ride alongs, with us and some took us up on the offer, because operationalizing any form of legislation, it comes with different and many levels. 

And so we don't want to erode the reluctancy of officers interacting with the public. We don't want to do anything that's going to slow down response time. Policing and public safety is judged in seconds. The seconds that you take away from that officer responding to a job or focus on that job, that could be the difference between life and death or harm or danger to others. 

Marza: When you mentioned that you agree with components of, or at least the passion or the purpose behind this bill, have we reached the point where the actual merits of the legislation are being lost because the political process is playing out and people are kind of entrenched in corners? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, I do. I believe we have, and that's why I think it's imperative that we sit down and look at how this is operationalized. I know the heart of the councilpersons were in the right place. I know what they wanted to do. I spent my life getting the balance between public safety and justice. 

But this bill would not do and accomplish that if it remains the way it is. And that is why I vetoed the bill.  And I'm hoping that they won't override my veto; and if they do, let's get the bill right. We could never do anything that's going to jeopardize public safety in the city and the success that we have been witnessing. 

Marza: We'll see what happens. Mayor Adams, thanks for your time. As always, we appreciate it. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you.