New York state bans police chokeholds, makes disciplinary records public

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed police reform legislation Friday banning chokeholds by police officers, designating false race-based 911 calls as hate crimes and making police disciplinary records more transparent.

The legislation will effectively end Civil Rights Law 50-a, which protects the disciplinary records of police officers in New York state, Cuomo said at a press briefing Friday. The governor will also issue an executive order mandating that local police departments develop reform plans to “reinvent and modernize police strategies and programs.” 

Departments that do not adopt reform plans by April 1 will not receive state funding, Cuomo said.

The legislation follows several weeks of protests in response to the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police. Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, faces charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter. The three other officers present during Floyd’s killing face charges of aiding and abetting murder.

“The truth is police reform is long overdue,” Cuomo said. “Mr. Floyd’s murder is just the most recent murder.”

The legislation will also make the state’s attorney general the independent prosecutor in killings of unarmed civilians by police. Cuomo wants to restore trust between police and their communities, he said. 

Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, who sat beside Cuomo as he signed the legislation, commended the governor’s plan to withhold state funding from police departments that don’t propose reform measures.

“These bills mean some substantive change so that we won’t be sitting here going over this after the next funeral,” Sharpton said.