#Andrew Cuomo signs three more police accountability measures into law

Police officers will have to file a report every time they discharge their weapon under a new law approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday.

The discharge bill was one of three police accountability measures signed into law by the governor — following a slew of other proposals approved last week in response to the police brutality death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The new discharge law requires state and local law enforcement officers to verbally report firing a gun while on duty to his or her supervisor — where a person could be struck — within six hours of discharge.

They also must prepare and file a written report within 48 hours of the incident.

The second measure, the Police Statistics and Transparency Act or STAT Act, requires courts to compile and publish racial and other demographic data of all low-level offenses, including misdemeanors and violations.

The data collected must be made available online and updated monthly.

The new law also orders police departments to report any arrest-related death to the Department of Criminal Justice Services and to submit annual reports on arrest-related deaths to the governor and the Legislature.

The third new law requires police officers and other law enforcement reps to provide medical and mental health attention to any individual in custody.

Police can be held liable for damages for anyone who does not receive medical attention and suffers a serious physical injury or has their injury exacerbated by the lack of care.

“Police reform is long overdue in this state and this nation, and New York is once again leading the way and enacting real change to end the systemic discrimination that exists in our criminal justice and policing systems,” Cuomo said.

“These critical reforms will help improve the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve and take us one step closer to righting the many injustices minority communities have faced because of a broken and unfair system.”

During his press briefing Monday, Cuomo said he sided with the cause of the protesters demanding action after Floyd’s death.

“The outrage was right, the outrage was justified. What we do in New York is we take the outrage and we seize the moment, right? Carpe momentum. It’s about people wanting change. Well, New York will be the place that actually makes the change, and we’ve passed laws that have done just that,” he said.

Among the bills that the Democrat-run Legislature passed last week and Cuomo signed into law was a measure to improve transparency at police departments by granting the public access to officer disciplinary files. Police unions had long opposed the proposal.

Cuomo also signed an executive order requiring local governments to come up with plans to overhaul their police department by April 1 of next year — or face the loss of state funding.