Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On CBS News New York’s Streaming Network

January 30, 2024

Mary Calvi: The New York City Council will vote on the controversial How Many Stops Act, a bill vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams. The bill would require police officers to document all stops, including casual inquiries. Critics of the bill say it would slow down police work, while supporters believe it will bring much more transparency to the NYPD. 

Chris Wragge: And joining us now to further discuss is New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who's also joined by Yanely Henriquez, mother of Angellyh Yambo who was killed by gun violence back in April of 2022. We thank the both of you for joining us here this morning. 

Calvi: Thank you. Good morning. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. 

Wragge: Mr Mayor. I want to start with you. The council speaker, the public advocate insists that you've been spreading misinformation and that this bill, this How Many Stops Act will not...that it will add more paperwork. Now, they say it's not going to add as much paperwork as you say. Let me ask you this: do you disagree with this? Will this compromise public safety like they say? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, it will. And I want to be extremely clear: I support the concept of the bill. We already do proper documentation Level 2's, Level 3's, Level 4's. Those are different levels of stops and interaction particularly around criminality. Like the stopping of the councilman Yusef Salaam, that was already documented, it was on video and a documentation had to be done. 

Here's the issue. The Level 1’s, if someone calls the police and states, my mother is suffering from dementia and she's missing, that police officer goes out with a photo or any other information and asks people, did they see this person. Every person he or she stops and asks that, they're going to have to document it. 

And to some, they say, well, that's just a matter of minutes. You judge response time and public safety in seconds and minutes. Every second and every minute should go to finding bad people, not doing paperwork. 

Wragge: So, is there any compromise that can be found there? So, if you've got people that are asking cops for directions or something like that where you're looking for a missing person, is there a compromise where you can maybe not have to worry about that but still allow everybody, police accountability and all the other things that fall under this umbrella? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, and that is why I took a group of council people out on the ride along. They rode with police officers. They saw how this is going to be operationalized. I'm hoping that if the veto, my veto is overrode by the City Council which I'm hoping is doesn't, but if it is between the time of actually implementing the law in July, let's sit down and let's fix the one part of this bill that I believe would have a serious impact on police overtime, on police interaction with the public. 

Because we should not be guessing the gender and the race of the public, we should not be spending time trying to fill out the reason for every time we ask someone for that missing person type interaction. So, this is not a police stop bill, this is a police interaction bill, which is different, and I don't think that's what the council people had in mind when they introduced this. 

Calvi: Mayor Adams, do you have the votes to prevent a veto override? 

Mayor Adams: Well, we don't know that until the votes get to the floor. We're hoping that everyone explains their votes. We're hoping that those who went on the ride along with us will bring a level of understanding to this, that we can get both: we can get the public safety we want, we can get the justice that we want. 

But we cannot in any way take seconds or minutes away from [the] police of ensuring that we catch people who are doing harmful things to innocent people, like Yanely's daughter that we lost to violence. 

Wragge: And Ms. Henriquez, I want to bring you in now. You've also spoken out against the stops bill. Can you tell us a little about your daughter? What happened to her and the effect that you think this legislation will have? 

Yanely Henriquez: Well, unfortunately, my daughter was walking from school back in '22, and she was in between crossfire. She lost her life. She was only 16 years old. As a mom, I'm going to, you know, try... I want to do something with my pain. I want to make sure that I help other families. 

I was, you know, I was blessed that the cops were working 24/7 to catch, you know, the criminal that did this to my daughter. But at the end of the day, there's other situations where cops don't need to stay and stay hours and hours in a precinct just doing paperwork. 

Instead of going out and catching people that are doing bad things, like just like my daughter, instead of sitting and spending hours doing a report to then go out and that gives that person a gap that they can either commit another crime or they can run away and you're not going to be able to catch, which is more time that people are going to invest to try to find him. 

You know, so I completely agree with the mayor. You know, let's do... Everything is in the body cams. We don't need to write it on paper. You know, so we have to make sure that every minute counts, because every minute you can save a life. 

Calvi: And Mr. Mayor if your veto is overridden, how will you put this into practice? I mean, is it actually going to be paperwork; and/or will there be a possibility of, you know, an app with a drop down menu? I mean, what are you planning even in the next few weeks? 

Mayor Adams: That's what the Police Department is doing. We have to have a Plan A and a Plan B, and our desire is to look at those 8.5 million, 311, 911 calls that we receive, not having to actually do this form of documentation for that. And we're hoping, again, that the window before implementation if the bill was overrode by the council, we're hoping that there's a way to address this issue. 

But I cannot emphasize enough: every second we need in this city with our police that is already monitored, every second should go to fighting crime and continue the success that we have had in bringing down shootings, bringing down homicides and making the city the safest big city in America. 

Wragge: Mr. Mayor, before we let you go, you know, this bill stems from the public's mistrust with the NYPD. If not with this bill, how can trust be restored between the citizens of this city and the NYPD? 

Mayor Adams: I think it has. I think when you look at and listen to the overwhelming number of New Yorkers, they're happy to see that police officer on that subway station, on their blocks, responding to the calls of service. It has become one of the most diverse police departments in the country of different ethnic groups that have now joined the Police Department. 

I think that trust was really emphasized, believe it or not, even in the car stop with Councilman Yusef Salaam and the police officer. That police officer walked up to the car, identified himself, used terminologies like "sir," and other terminologies. We saw what we would not have seen years ago in this Police Department [and] civilian interaction. And I think we're in a good place. We need to continue to do so. 

Having to guess people's gender, ethnicity and all of those items, I think that is going to erode the interaction with police and civilians. 

Wragge: And if you heard the audio of that exchange, it was an extremely cordial exchange between Mr. Salaam and the officer. Mr. Mayor, we thank you, Ms. Henriquez. Thank you both for taking the time and being with us here today. 

Calvi: Thank you very much. 

Wragge: We greatly appreciate it. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.