Families of Police Brutality Victims Plead With Eric Adams To Sign ‘How Many Stops Act’

A report released during the 2023 summer months shows about 97% of NYPD's stop-and-frisk were geared towards Black or Hispanic residents.

Close to 20 families of victims killed by NYPD cops are begging NYC Mayor Eric Adams to support a bill requiring cops to document all stops.

Adams is opposed to the “How Many Stops Act (HMSA),” signed by the NYC Council on Dec. 20, saying the act is a waste of time for officers and feels the priority should be policing over paperwork. Sponsored by city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the new requirement allegedly only takes up 20-30 more seconds. Under the new legislation, cops must report encounters with New Yorkers with several questions on an app for every pedestrian street stop.

“It’s literally four or five questions, one of which the police department asked us to put on, on a dropdown menu that people can just tap on their phone after the stop has occurred. It’s literally 20 to 30 seconds,” Williams said.

Victims’ families – including those of Eric Garner, Antonio Williams, Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell – argued in a letter to Adams that increasing reporting standards may discourage officers from participating in low-level stops and harassing New Yorkers for unconstitutional reasons. “Some of our loved ones, like Eric Garner and Antonio Williams, were killed during unconstitutional stops — the very encounters HMSA will illuminate,” the letter read.

The letter was signed by Garner’s mom, Gwen Carr, Williams’ stepmother and father, Gladys Williams and Shawn Williams, and more. They continued saying HMSA is the first step toward the changes they want. Knowing how often the stops occur and if there is racial motivation behind them, the families say, will prevent more from suffering with similar circumstances.

“The How Many Stops Act is not the only change we need, but by shedding light on all stops — including how often and where they happen and if they are motivated by racial profiling — it will enable us to work together toward eradicating unnecessary and unconstitutional policing and ultimately prevent others families from suffering as we do.”

According to CBS News, data from the mayor’s management report, there have been close to 300,000 calls for crimes in progress between July 2022 and June 2023. Following an appearance on CBS’ The Point where Adams said the bill would endanger public safety, his office released a statement saying more. “Since day one, our administration has made public safety our top priority, and we have delivered results: Overall crime is down, shootings are down, and New Yorkers are safer than they were two years ago…”

A report released during the 2023 summer months showed about 97% of NYPD’s stop-and-frisk were geared towards Black or Hispanic residents.