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The NYPD May Soon Need to Get Permission From Suspects For Searches

City Council bill will be voted on this week aims to curtail unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices.
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On Wednesday, The New York Post reported that the New York City Council will be introducing a bill on Thursday stipulating that NYPD officers must get audio or written consent before they can carry out a search on a suspect.

It is already an individual's right to reject a search in instances when police lack a warrant or don't have probable cause for arrest. However, under the proposed legislation, suspects would have to be informed of this right and give explicit consent for the search to proceed.

According to the Post, the bill, a rehashing of the 2012 Community Safety Act, would need 26 votes in City Council to then be passed on to Mayor de Blasio for veto or approval.

Police union representative are slamming the proposal, which intends to reform discriminatory and unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices. According to the Post, Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, called the bill "total insanity," while Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said, "This is the exact kind of poorly conceived idea from this City Council that starts with the belief that aggressively fighting crime to keep communities safe is a bad thing."

In 2013 the New York Civil Liberties surveyed police data on 5 million stops made by the NYPD under Mayor Bloomberg. The analysis found that over 86 percent of the stops were on black or Latino individuals. 88 percent of the stops did not result in an arrest or summons, let alone a conviction.