Police Commissioner Bill Bratton on Monday took aim at a slew of laws a City Council comm♌ittee is considering, callin꧟g them unnecessary and saying they would handcuff cops trying to fight crime.
One proposal would create new guidelines on how and when officers can use force when subduing a suspect while another would make the use of chokeholds a crime — a response to the death of Eric Garner on ✱Staten Island during an arrest.
Bratton recalled the assassina♌tions of Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos and the murder of Detective Brian Moore as well as other attacks on cops to illustrate the danger༒s of police work, but said the use of force was down significantly anyway.
“Officers use their firearms less often in New꧙ York than in any other large American city,” Bratton told members of the council’s Public Safety Committ🐟ee.
“Officers also use less and less force of any kind. From 2010 to 2014, incidents of force 🅺of any kind used during arrest are down 34 percent. In 2010, 2.5 percent of arrests involved the officer using force. In 2014, that figure was 1.8 percent,” he said.
“We have very serious concerns about the potenti🍸al impact these bills would have on our police officers,” he added, saying the first could create doubt in the mind of a cop forced to make 🃏a split-second decision in a matter of life or death.
Rꦇegardin♉g chokeholds, Bratton said the department is revising its policy, but that even existing policy has banned chokeholds for more than 20 years.
Still, he added, the i෴ssue should remain a matter 💯of policy, not be classified as a crime.
New training that emphasizes de-escalation and communication techniques designed to avoid conflict would reduce the use of force even further, Bratton said, while predicting that the department’s new neighborhood policing plan — “One City Safe and 𒆙Fair, Everywhere” — would also improve relations with the community.
At one point during his remarks, the exasperated commissioner got distracted by a noisy lܫawnmower outside City Hall.
“It’s extraordinarily distracting,” he griped as a staffer went out💞side and told the landscaper to take a break.
Another set of🐎 laws would result in the council micro-managing the department, requiring cops ꦓto tell people they’re questioning their name, rank and precinct, and inform suspects that they have the right to refuse to be searched or have their property searched.
Cops would even have to get “proof of consent” from the suspect, and leave t♕hem with a card w🌊ith the phone number of the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
“I wish to say, respectfully and firmly, that theﷺse are the purview of the police commissioner 🐟and the police department and not of legislative control,” Bratton said.
The search law, he said, was based on the council’s dislike of the stop-and-frisk policy and♈ low-level marijuana arrests — both of which are down dramatically under Bratton’s watch.
“Stop-and-frisk has declined 93 percent from their historic high in 2011 [and] marijuana arrests are down by half from 2011 to 2014,” he said.
Overall, he said, the council’s proposals would only add another unnecessary layer of ove🍌rsight to a police department that’s already under the microscope.
“These bills are a solution in search of a problem. Practices have been changed and oversight has been established. There is a federal monitor, an ins🦋pector general, five district attorneys, the Civilian Complaint Rev𝓰iew Board, two US attorneys and the Department of Justice,” he said.
Other bills would require the department to give the council data on which ♚precincts have the most CCRB complaints and brutality lawsuits.
But Bratton said such reports “would be a snapshot of the subject commands … and would for the most part rely on allegations rather than substantiated cases or findings of guilt.”
Yet another bil൩l would create a “Body-Worn Camera Task Force” charged with studying the use of bo𝕴dy cameras in the department.
But Bratton said the federal monitor is already studying the use of cameras, so a second꧂ local group would be redundant.
“In sum, ಌthe 💯position of the department is that many of the bills currently under consideration today are better achieved through collaboration and dialogue between the council and the department,” Bratton said.
At least one committee member, Steve Matteo🐭 (R-Staten Island), .
“Today, the committee … heard testimony on bills that I believe would shackle the police in the course of their duty. We are on a slippery and dangerous slope when the council tries to second-guess every interaction our brave men and women in blue have with the public,” he said.
Rank-and-🍸file cops are al𒊎so fuming over the measures.
“These pieces of legislation have been proposed by individuals who have neither the expertise nor the experience to establish policy in the dangerous business of fighting crime,” Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said in a statement Sunday.
“Policing policies must be left to the police management who understand the intricacies and diffiꦚculties of complex legal issues and the appropriate use of crime-fighting t🅰actics.”