Adams vetoes law enforcement bills, despite likely council override

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams vetoed two bills opposed by law enforcement officers on Friday — cementing his opposition even as the City Council is likely to override both and make them law.

One bill would require police officers to report more information on low-level stops — which Adams said would waste their time. The other would place stricter limits on solitary confinement and the use of restraints in city jails. Adams has said that would make Rikers Island less safe for both incarcerated people and guards.

“We cannot handcuff the police. We want to handcuff bad people who are violent,” Adams said at a City Hall press conference. “It’s about making sure we do not prevent them from doing their job.”

The Council passed the How Many Stops Act in December with a veto-proof two-thirds majority: 35-9, with four absences and three abstentions. Adams signaled Friday he’d be lobbying members to persuade at least two more to vote against an override.

The Council passed the solitary confinement bill with 39 yes votes. But if it becomes law, it could face obstacles to implementation given the public opposition from a federal monitor overseeing the city’s notoriously violent jails.

The council has 30 days to act after a veto, and Speaker Adrienne Adams has said she’s confident she’ll have enough votes to override the mayor on both measures.

This is not the first sign of friction between the mayor and Council: The body already overrode Adams in July on a package of bills to reform the rental voucher system.

But this latest back-and-forth is straining the mayor’s relationship with local lawmakers even further, at a time when he is facing political opposition on several fronts. The speaker, once an ally, is becoming emboldened to take him on; the city’s public advocate had harsh words for the mayor on Friday; and Adams’ one-time campaign rival, former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, just announced he’s thinking of challenging him next year.

“The mayor is in a slump,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said of the retired police captain. “He’s flailing all over. So he wants to tell all New Yorkers that he’s the hero that can save him. And using this basic reporting bill to show that is disturbing.”

The Council speaker also issued a strong rebuke in a joint statement with Sandy Nurse, the chair of the Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice.

“We urge the Mayor's administration to begin addressing the council as a co-equal branch of government by coming to legislative negotiations with the competence and good faith that has too often been lacking to best serve our city,” the statement read.

The mayor quietly announced the solitary confinement veto with a press release Friday afternoon. The policing veto, by contrast, earned a Friday morning rally on the newly reopened steps of City Hall with police unions, chambers of commerce and ethnic business associations. Those groups, who are core constituencies of the mayor, then stood behind him at his press conference.

Though Adams has sharply criticized the “How Many Stops Act” policing bill at numerous public appearances over the last few weeks, he struck a more conciliatory tone Friday.

“I believe the City Council’s intentions were good intentions. There were parts of this bill that we agreed on,” Adams said. “In no way do I want anyone to think this is an anti-Council veto, or anti-speaker veto. This is a pro-public safety veto.”

NYPD officers are already required to log all investigative encounters with members of the public. The new law would add additional reporting requirements, like the person’s apparent race, age and gender and the reason for the encounter. That data would be aggregated into a department-wide report.

A court-appointed monitor has repeatedly found that officers are underreporting street stops.

Adams has said he’s in favor of logging that information for stops where there’s a suspicion of criminal activity but not all stops.

Maybe as he tries to “at least survive reelection, he wants to make sure he shows his pro-cop bona fides,” quipped Williams, whose own relationship with Adams has devolved into personal attacks over the past few weeks.

Williams said the mayor, a former police captain, might be simply trying to “survive reelection” by flexing his “pro-cop bona fides.”