Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On FOX5’s “Good Day New York

January 30, 2024

Curt Menefee: The City Council is set to vote today to override Mayor Adams' veto of the controversial How Many Stops Act. 

Rosanna Scotto: So, the legislation would require the NYPD to log nearly every public interaction with advocates saying [it] supports transparency, but Mayor Adams says forcing officers to document low level stops will compromise public safety by making them just swamped in paperwork instead of fighting crime. 

Joining us right now from Gracie Mansion, Mayor Adams along with Yanely Henriquez, who is against the bill. She's the mother of Angellyh Yambo. I'm sorry if I've totally messed this up. 

Menefee: Angellyh Yambo. 

Scotto: Angellyh Yambo, who was killed by gun violence in 2022. Nice to have you both here. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. 

Yanely Henriquez: Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: Thanks so much. Good to see you. 

Menefee: Yes. Thank you for joining. So, I'm going to start with you, Mayor. First of all, you need two thirds of the votes from the City Council in order to veto it. In the initial passing the bill, they had 35 of the 51, 34 would be enough, so you've got to flip two votes somewhere. Do you think you still can do that before this afternoon's vote? 

Mayor Adams: Well, we're going to continue to communicate with the council as much as possible and to show that there's a possibility of getting what they want conceptually. I agree what they want conceptually, we agree with Level 2's, Level 3's, Level 4 stops. We already use body camera. 

But the Level 1 stops, which the definition comes from a court decision, that is where the volumes of stops. I want New Yorkers to understand, these are the types of interactions when your mother has Alzheimer's and police officers are going to look for her. 

Every person that they ask "did you see Ms. Jones," they have to document that. And that is what we are talking about. I'm hoping that if the veto is...if the override is in place, that we can sit down before it's executed and fix that aspect of the law. 

Menefee: You know what? We'll get back to you in one second, mayor, to ask a few more questions about that, but you've got Ms. Henriquez with you. And I want to ask you, you and a bunch of other mothers...or, a couple of other mothers, pardon me, who had lost children to murder in the city, wrote the Council Speaker Adams, and you kind of pleaded with her to not overturn this veto. Have you heard at all from her? What response have you gotten, if any? 

Henriquez: I haven't gotten any response at all. 

Scotto: So, basically, what is your point to Councilwoman Adams? 

Henriquez: I want her to think that police officers are not secretaries. They have to be outside making sure that they deliver justice for family, making sure that, you know, everybody stays safe. 

Like Mayor Adams already stated, they have all that footage in the cameras, why go and spend hours and hours and hours to doing police report? It is a waste of time. They could be outside looking for whoever's committing crimes. 

Scotto: Right, because I'm sure you want speedy justice in this, right? 

Henriquez: Absolutely. 

Scotto: Right. So, Mayor, let's talk about this a little bit. I'm sure you try to compromise with the City Council. Is there no middle ground that you've reached with the City Council? Because I'm hearing now that they're talking about an app that now the police officers don't have to put all that paperwork in right away. It's by app and they don't have to do it for like three months to a year. Is that true? 

Mayor Adams: I don't know exactly. Whomever is putting that out is really not having a full understanding of how you operationalize public safety. And that's why I did the ride along, and some of the councilpersons came after and said, you know, we're really seeing what this is all about. 

Because when you're on the ground catching bad guys that are doing bad things to innocent people in the city, it's about timing. We judge the Police Department's response times in minutes. Like the person who stabbed six people, we communicated with a thousand of citizens to find this person, and those seconds matter. 

And so anyone who dismisses the amount of time we take police from policing to do paperwork is not fully understanding the scope of public safety. 

Menefee: But mayor, let me ask you, Rosanna headed towards it just now, but I think you've also admitted this paperwork doesn't, it's not like they stop an interview and start writing down paperwork. If they have time, how would that, in fact, delay them with their research and talking to people? 

Mayor Adams: Well, think about this for a moment. There's many levels to this. That police officer, even if he...he has to acknowledge who that person is while he's communicating, he has to guess their gender, their ethnicity, their age. He has to have the purpose of his interaction with them. 

And even if he goes back and do this once he goes to the command, that officer is going back to that command earlier to do the paperwork or he's going to be on overtime to do the paperwork and the documentation. 

So, we're going to be spending more tax dollars doing documentation that we already capture on body camera instead of that officer using the resources of the city not to have overtime, not to go back to the command earlier to do this documentation. 

We need to maximize our police on the street catching people who are doing harmful things like Yanely's daughter. We worked around the clock to catch the killer and we were able to do so because officers are focusing on public safety, not focusing on paperwork. 

Menefee: How much of this is a matter of public safety versus the morale of the police department? 

Mayor Adams: It's huge when you think about it. Now they're going to be worrying about, did I guess the gender of a person correctly? We have an officer that's being brought up on CCRB complaints right now because he misjudged the gender of someone. 

In a society where everyone is extremely sensitive of what they want to be called and how they want to be identified, and then officers are now saying, I'm spending more time focusing, am I guessing who this person is in front of me? If I get it wrong, am I going to be brought up on CCRB complaints? Is the documentation going to be incorrect when it's time for discovery with the DAs? 

There are layers, and that's why the state DAs are saying, hold on here, let's look at this. And that is what was sent to the council. Let's get the bill right so we can get this conception of what they're looking for. We could have transparency and public safety. They can coexist. 

Scotto: Can we talk a little bit about Councilman Yusef Salaam, because he was pulled over the other night and everybody was like, oh, see, this is now playing into the How Many Stops Act. But then it backfired, big time. Where do you stand because a lot of people are pretty upset. 

Mayor Adams: Yes. And Rosanna, you know for many years, this is what I cut my teeth on, public safety and justice, testifying in federal court to bring down a number of stop and frisk, et cetera. 

I think those who wanted to use this as an example, it backfired on them, because number one, it was documented. It was on video camera. Number two, the officers did do a report. And number three, this is not the type of case of a Level 1. Every car stop automatically has to have a report with it to make sure it's documented correctly. 

And what amazes me is that we saw a civilian and police interaction that was textbook perfect, that we showed how we can get it right. This is really showing the case that our officers are professional, they communicate well. 

The officer walked to the car and identified who he was, and the councilman identified himself. And I think that we should look at this as a moment that we've come a long way from what policing was like, and we should acknowledge that. 

Scotto: Well, let me ask you something, because now obviously, it's backfiring against Councilmember Yusef Salaam because he had Georgia plates— he's been here for over a year, and he had tinted windows. I've had family members pulled over for tinted windows, too, and have gotten tickets. Should he resign from that big council committee that oversees the police? I mean, what do you think? 

Mayor Adams: That's the Public Safety Committee. No, I don't believe he should. I communicated with Councilman Salaam. And when you saw his interaction, and I taught what to do when stopped by the police classes, that's what I need. I would have wanted someone the way he responded, he was calm. They both deescalated the situation. I just really commend both of them. 

Scotto: But he didn't deescalate it because he was fine in the car. Afterwards, he gave a different story on how things transpired until the police video was released. 

Mayor Adams: No, I'm talking about at the scene of a police stop. Let me tell you, and to viewers, one of the most dangerous assignments a police officer can do is a police stop. That's extremely stressful and dangerous, and it's one of the most stressful things a civilian can go through to see those lights behind their car and pulled over. 

Both of them were under a high level of stress and both of them responded the way we should respond when we interact during those dark hours, responded correctly. And so I think that the uniqueness of Councilman Salaam's life and this experience is going to allow him to really appreciate the role of policing. 

He's going to do a ride along, so I'm looking forward to joining him on that. We need to learn and respect more what police officers are doing every day when they place their lives on the line. And we can get it right [with] public safety and justice. 

Scotto: Will he get New York license plates now? [Laughter.] 

Mayor Adams: I am sure he is. He loves being the councilperson and he loves being in the village of Harlem. And how could you not love New York, the greatest city on the globe? 

Menefee: We have so many more questions for you, but we are being told we're out of time, so we have to let you go. Thank you so much, Mayor Adams and Yanely Henriquez for joining us both. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. 

Henriquez: Thank you so much both. Have a great day. 

Menefee: Thank you so much.