Press Room

"Chag Kasher V’Sameach to the Jewish community as the celebration of Passover begins - I wish a happy and kosher holiday to all.

"Through the story of the Israelites’ strength and perseverance through suffering, Passover reminds us that with hope, with resolve, any obstacle can be overcome. There are many seemingly incessant obstacles in this moment, including hatred and anti-Semitism we must unite to oppose.

"In sharing the ancient story, in sharing sacred traditions, we await the miracle of full redemption - ever progressing, moving forward, pursuing deliverance from our bonds and our tormentors. In the spirit of Passover, any obstacle can be overcome - with hope and resolve in equal measure.

"May everyone observing have a peaceful and meaningful Passover. Chag Sameach."

"As the disgraced former president faces his first arraignment for his many alleged crimes, the people calling his indictment an injustice and attacking District Attorney Bragg are among the same who called the District Attorney ‘soft on crime’ for his efforts to combat mass incarceration. The people claiming that this process is unreasonable or unfair to Donald Trump are among the same fighting even now to claw back bail reform and incarcerate more low-income Black and Brown New Yorkers.

"This outrage on behalf of Donald Trump makes it clear that their real goal is upholding a two-tiered system where whiter and wealthier defendants benefit at the expense of historically marginalized communities. Imagine if they had the same outrage on behalf of the thousands of New Yorkers held pre-trial, sometimes for years, on Rikers Island. Imagine if the same passion had been brought in defense of the wrongly-accused former Central Park Five as is being brought for the man who argued they should be executed.

"Trump is playing the victim, while in reality exercising privilege, power, and protections that no other defendant has, in a selfish and cruel action at the expense of others.

"Placing the former president above the law while working to change it in ways which harm the less privileged and powerful is a greater threat to public safety than any they claim to combat."

"This is not a day of triumph, except for the rule of law which governs all of us, including disgraced former presidents. I commend Manhattan District Attorney Bragg for courageously leading a thorough investigation to this point.

"Donald Trump must be held accountable. Not only for the financial charges he’s been indicted on today, but for his efforts to undermine our democracy, which are still under investigation and which still reverberate dangerously throughout our country. We will now undoubtedly see conservative hypocrisy, lies, and dangerous rhetoric as some put not only party, but person, over the well-being of our country and the people within it.

"Today’s indictment is part of a process that will continue to move forward, uninhibited by the former President’s attacks or incitements to action, and unwavering in a commitment to justice for the unprecedented conduct of Donald Trump in his efforts to grab and hold onto power and relevance at the expense of any and all."

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams pushed to pass his police accountability bills at a hearing of the City Council Committee on Public Safety. He spoke in support of his legislation to expedite access to body camera footage and report on NYPD vehicle stops, as well as his bill to require transparency on all levels of police-civilian encounters, part of the How Many Stops Act.

“Every day, New Yorkers are stopped by the NYPD. Sometimes, this results in a search—a level three stop, where an officer has legal authority to detain someone and prevent them from leaving, colloquially known as “stop-and-frisk.” The NYPD is required to report on these stops, so we know that Black and Brown people are disproportionately stopped: Black and Latinx New Yorkers made up 91 percent of reported stops as of 2020…” said Public Advocate Williams in support of the How Many Stops Act. “We still, however, do not have the full picture of who is being stopped by the NYPD, as they are not currently required to report on level one and level two stops. Despite being lower-level stops, the feeling of being stopped, questioned, and possibly searched by police is indistinguishable from the experience of level three stops.”

Intro 586, one half of the How Many Stops Act, would would require the NYPD to report on all levels of police stops and encounters, including the location where they happened, the demographic information of those stopped, the factors that led to the interaction, and whether the encounter leads to any use of force or enforcement action. The act builds upon the Community Safety Act of 2013, which helped to address the abuses of stop, question, and frisk, and put in place an Inspector General for the NYPD. This new legislation also expands on the Right to Know Act passed in 2017.

Public Advocate Williams is also the prime sponsor of Intro 781, which would require the NYPD to include in vehicle encounter reports the justification used by an officer to conduct a vehicle stop, if an observed offense was cited as the justification for a vehicle stop, and whether the offense was at the level of an infraction, violation, misdemeanor or felony. With the New York Civil Liberties Union reporting that in 2022, 49 percent of drivers arrested following traffic stops were Black, and 39 percent were Latinx, this bill is an important tool for understanding the scope of and reasons for stops, as well as combating any persistent patterns of bias or injustice.

The Public Advocate further discussed the need to increase transparency surrounding the body-worn camera footage by passing Intro 585, which would require the NYPD to share all body-worn camera footage with the Department of Investigation’s Inspector General for the NYPD and the Department of Records and Information Services within 5 days of the recording. Public Advocate Williams is the co-prime sponsor of a related bill from Speaker Adrienne Adams, Intro 938, to require the NYPD to provide the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) with direct access to all footage recorded by officer body-worn cameras.

“In addition to underreporting on stops, the NYPD has historically shirked responsibility when it comes to granting access to body-worn camera footage,” argued the Public Advocate. “This lack of compliance with requests for access to body-worn camera footage seriously impedes investigations by oversight agencies, including the CCRB and the Department of Investigation’s OIG-NYPD. The NYPD has falsely denied that footage exists, or refused to turn over footage, citing embellished privacy issues, and have been generally slow to respond to requests.”

He closed saying that “We have seen time and time again that there is systemic bias still existing, and that the NYPD have consistently impeded any effort to hold them accountable by oversight agencies, elected officials, and members of the community. Increasing police presence in our communities will never increase public safety when the people in those communities only associate police with trauma, fear, discrimination, and abuse.”

The Public Advocate’s full statement to the committee is below. Read more about Intros 586, 781, and 585 here.

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS

TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY

MARCH 27, 2023

Good afternoon,

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. I would like to thank Chair Hanks and the members of the Committee on Public Safety for holding this important hearing and for hearing my bills. I also want to thank the Speaker for being present, and align myself with her statements. We often talk about some improvements that have occurred, but I do know and always say that the two buckets, as the Speaker mentioned, that haven’t seen any movement at all in my opinion are transparency and accountability.

Every day, New Yorkers are stopped by the NYPD. Sometimes, this results in a search—a level three stop, where an officer has legal authority to detain someone and prevent them from leaving, colloquially known as “stop-and-frisk.” The NYPD is required to report on these stops, so we know that Black and Brown people are disproportionately stopped: Black and Latinx New Yorkers made up 91 percent of reported stops as of 2020. Motor vehicle stop data for 2022 revealed similar disparities. The NYPD also disproportionately frisked and used force against Black and Latinx people. As we have seen all too often, these stops can escalate quickly to violent or even deadly situations.

We still, however, do not have the full picture of who is being stopped by the NYPD, as they are not currently required to report on level one and level two stops. Despite being lower-level stops, the feeling of being stopped, questioned, and possibly searched by police is indistinguishable from the experience of level three stops. That is why I have introduced Intro 0586-2022, which would require the NYPD to report on all levels of police stops and encounters, including the location where they happened, the demographic information of those stopped, the factors that led to the interaction, and whether the encounter leads to any use of force or enforcement action.

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, in 2022, 49 percent of drivers arrested following traffic stops were Black, and 39 percent were Latinx. I have introduced Intro 0781-2022, which would require the NYPD to include in vehicle encounter reports the justification used by an officer to conduct a vehicle stop, if an observed offense was cited as the justification for a vehicle stop, and whether the offense was at the level of an infraction, violation, misdemeanor or felony. In order to effectively address racial bias in policing, we need to know the full scope of the problem—and in a time where Mayor Adams has resurrected the NYPD’s notorious Street Crime Unit, now called Neighborhood Safety Teams, this information is crucial. 

In addition to underreporting on stops, the NYPD has historically shirked responsibility when it comes to granting access to body-worn camera footage. This lack of compliance with requests for access to body-worn camera footage seriously impedes investigations by oversight agencies, including the CCRB and the Department of Investigation’s OIG-NYPD. The NYPD has falsely denied that footage exists, or refused to turn over footage, citing embellished privacy issues, and have been generally slow to respond to requests. While many other cities give their police oversight bodies direct access to body-worn camera footage, New York City does not, causing delays and roadblocks in the CCRB and OIG-NYPD’s investigations. These delays deny justice for victims of police abuse and brutality, and increase New Yorkers’ fear and distrust of the police.

My bill, Intro 0585-2022, and a bill I have sponsored with Speaker Adams, Intro 0938-2023, seek to increase and expedite oversight agencies’ access to body-worn camera footage. Intro 585 would require the NYPD to share all body-worn camera footage with OIG-NYPD and the Department of Records and Information Services within 5 days of the recording. Intro 938 would grant the CCRB direct access to all footage recorded by officer body-worn cameras. The CCRB would have real-time connectivity to network servers hosting digital files of body-worn camera footage, allowing them to search, view, and use files for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting allegations of police misconduct. 

We have seen time and time again that there is systemic bias still existing, and that the NYPD have consistently impeded any effort to hold them accountable by oversight agencies, elected officials, and members of the community. Increasing police presence in our communities will never increase public safety simply by itself when the people in those communities only associate police with trauma, fear, discrimination, and abuse. I look forward to working with the City Council, the CCRB, and OIG-NYPD to ensure that the NYPD complies with the bills we are hearing today.

I did want to also say that it’s important to talk about the disparity in these stops, and, I also mention, the disparity of violence that occurs in Black and Brown communities – often the latter is the excuse for the former. However, this is the same thing I heard ten years ago. And so if the response was supposed to solve the disparity in violence in our communities, it has not. It has never. It will never.

We are clear that there has to be some police activity due to certain things that are going on- yet we are clear that the overuse of policing will never solve these problems. Ten years we’ve been saying this. Black and Brown people have been shot and killed and harmed, and for ten years we’ve seen overpolicing, and it’s still the same disparity. So I’m hoping that in having these discussions, we don’t get the same pushback we always get, because it doesn’t help keep our communities safe.

What we’re asking for is simple changes. The Mayor, Eric Adams, was involved in actually getting the initial information we needed to get on these stops, now that we have it I’m hoping he’ll join us in this as well, and we can get forward to talking about the real issues of public safety and what police involvement is, as well as other agencies.  

Thank you.

After private sector nurses engaged in a strike earlier this year for increased pay and improved working standards, the Bronx Times has published an op-ed by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams and Sonia Lawrence, a nurse at Lincoln Hospital and President of NYSNA’s H+H/Mayorals Executive Council. The piece, entitled 'NYC public hospital nurses need pay parity with the private sector,' discusses the ongoing fight for adequate pay, conditions, and benefits for nurses in the public hospital system and makes clear the consequences of delayed action.

"The city is hemorrhaging nurses from hospitals run by NYC Health + Hospitals and the mayoral agencies," the two leaders argue. "With low pay and chronic crisis-level understaffing, nurses are quitting in droves and either retiring early or going to the private sector where they can make a better living. To maintain quality care for our city’s most vulnerable patients, we must take action to retain trained, experienced nurses at the bedside. There is a simple solution: Our public hospital nurses need wages that are competitive with the private sector."

The piece also highlights the key role public health institutions play in caring for New Yorkers, noting that among other unique benefits "As private sector hospitals downsize and eliminate less profitable services like mental health care, labor and delivery, and emergency and trauma care, New York City’s public health care system continues to provide these essential services. And as the federal government reduces financial support for COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccination, NYC Health+Hospitals will continue to fulfill its mission to care for all New Yorkers. They will do it at a financial loss, so we all can gain a measure of health and security. Our city’s inability to retain experienced nurses threatens those essential services."

It is clear that "Keeping nurses’ pay this low is costing the city."

Full text of the op-ed is below, and it can be read online here.

NYC public hospital nurses need pay parity with the private sector

by Sonia Lawrence and Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams

New York City is home to the largest public health system in the country, caring for 1.4 million New Yorkers each year, regardless of ability to pay or immigration status. Our public hospitals are the safety-net that working-class and immigrant communities depend on. But our public hospitals are under incredible strain, facing an understaffing crisis worse than we’ve ever seen before.

The city is hemorrhaging nurses from hospitals run by NYC Health + Hospitals and the mayoral agencies. With low pay and chronic crisis-level understaffing, nurses are quitting in droves and either retiring early or going to the private sector where they can make a better living. To maintain quality care for our city’s most vulnerable patients, we must take action to retain trained, experienced nurses at the bedside.

There is a simple solution: Our public hospital nurses need wages that are competitive with the private sector.

Nearly 9,000 public sector nurses, members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), are bargaining a new union contract and are calling on the city to live up to its promise to implement pay equity with the private sector. The city’s contract with the nurses, which expired on March 2, has a clause committing to pay parity between the public and private sector, but that clause has been on pause for far too long.

NYSNA’s private sector nurses captured our city’s heart with a successful strike, and raised standards higher than ever before. The public sector hasn’t kept up with those standards for working conditions and pay – and we’re falling further behind. A new nursing graduate in the public sector will now make $19,000 a year less than her private-sector counterpart. That has to change.

With a NYC budget of more than $100 billion and a proposed state budget of roughly $220 billion, we can find the funds to stabilize nurse staffing. The patients that rely on our public hospitals for care deserve nothing less.

Our city’s public sector nurses are used to being asked to do more with less. They bore the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic and have done more than anyone to keep our city safe – as of October 2022, they distributed 1.75 million COVID vaccine doses. Nurses in our city’s public outpatient clinics have given more COVID treatments than any other health system, preventing hundreds of deaths and thousands of hospitalizations.

Our 11 public hospitals make up almost 20% of our citywide hospital beds, operate the largest hospital-based clinic system in the city, and provide almost half of all Level I emergency trauma care and acute in-patient mental health services in our city. City health care workers also keep first responders like police and firefighters healthy and provide direct care to New Yorkers who receive assistance from agencies like Child Services, the Department of Social Services and other programs providing homeless services and mental health crisis services.

As private sector hospitals downsize and eliminate less profitable services like mental health care, labor and delivery, and emergency and trauma care, New York City’s public health care system continues to provide these essential services. And as the federal government reduces financial support for COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccination, NYC Health+Hospitals will continue to fulfill its mission to care for all New Yorkers. They will do it at a financial loss, so we all can gain a measure of health and security.

Our city’s inability to retain experienced nurses threatens those essential services. While NYC Health+Hospitals continues to hire new nurses, few stay for the long-run. On some units the most senior nurse, who is training and mentoring new hires, has only one year of experience because turnover is so high.

Our city’s hospitals fill staffing gaps with travel nurses paid two or three times the salaries of staff nurses. In the Bronx, Lincoln Hospital’s Level 1 Trauma Center is now largely staffed by travel and agency nurses who are not familiar with hospital policies or the patient population we serve.

Keeping nurses’ pay this low is costing the city. We’re spending too much from our city and state coffers on expensive temporary travel nurses, and on recruitment and training for new nurses that immediately leave for higher paying jobs in the private sector.

Health and pay equity should be a priority of every decision-maker in our city and state. We’re calling for pay parity as a matter of survival for our city and its public health system.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams today called for a city budget that invests in public safety services and infrastructure beyond simply law enforcement, and emphasized the need to strengthen accountability and oversight through the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) and other efforts. In a statement prepared and submitted to the City Council Committee on Public Safety, he urged a holistic approach to protecting and producing public safety.

“Typically, I would be asking the City Council for more funds to bolster and expand the vital services that our city’s agencies provide to millions of New Yorkers every day,” opened Public Advocate Williams. “In the case of the NYPD, however, it is more appropriate to pinpoint where portions of their budget are better served being reallocated to other agencies. The NYPD is by far the biggest and most expensive police department in the country, and serves social service functions that are not appropriate and should be reassigned to other agencies.” He opposed the proposed reduction in CCRB headcount and highlighted actions the City Council can take to strengthen accountability.

The Public Advocate further pushed for non-police responses to people experiencing homelessness and mental health crises, and called for reallocation of funding spent on a surge of law enforcement into the subway system, particularly for officer overtime.

Public Advocate Williams commended the administration’s focus on strengthening the Crisis Management System, saying that “This is what public safety should look like: an investment in communities, robust support services, and allowing those closest to the problem to lead the solution.” He further argued for expanded funding of public defender services, noting “ It is low-income New Yorkers who ultimately face the consequences of a budget that favors district attorneys’ offices, deprived of the robust legal representation that they need and deserve. The city budget must ensure a high standard of quality legal representation for low-income New Yorkers.”

Read the full statement as submitted by the Public Advocate below.

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS

TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY

MARCH 20, 2023

Good morning,

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. I would like to thank Chair Hanks and the members of the Committee on Public Safety for holding this important hearing.

Typically, I would be asking the City Council for more funds to bolster and expand the vital services that our city’s agencies provide to millions of New Yorkers every day. In the case of the NYPD, however, it is more appropriate to pinpoint where portions of their budget are better served being reallocated to other agencies. The NYPD is by far the biggest and most expensive

police department in the country, and serves social service functions that are not appropriate and should be reassigned to other agencies.

One of the major problems with the NYPD is our city’s lack of effective oversight. The CCRB has the ability to investigate complaints of police misconduct and abuse, but they are understaffed, underfunded, and without the legal power to carry out their recommendations for discipline. The proposed budget reduced the CCRB’s headcount by 22 positions; as this reduction must come from vacant positions, it will result in a racial profiling unit of only 13, when the CCRB recently testified that their headcount goal is 50. Further, since the implementation of the NYPD’s disciplinary matrix, the number of cases being sent to the CCRB’s Administrative Prosecution Unit increased 40 percent between 2020 and 2021. While OMB allowed the APU to hire four more prosecutors, they still need more staff.

Although the CCRB cannot enforce their disciplinary recommendations, there are budgetary ways for the City Council to make cuts related to abusive policing by:

Removing the use of paid administrative leave for officers under investigation

Withholding pensions and halting all rehirings of officers involved in excessive force

Requiring NYPD to be liable for misconduct settlements

The NYPD should not be involved in providing assistance and services to people experiencing homelessness or mental health crises. Dispatching police to remove people perceived as being homelessness or experiencing symptoms of mental illness to a hospital is not helpful and only wastes city resources. The city instead must invest in non-police responses to people in mental health crisis; affordable, community-based mental health services; subsidized housing; and respite and drop-in centers. 

The mayor’s harmful Subway Safety Plan has exacerbated a police overtime surge. The NYPD has a history of underestimating their overtime spending: for Fiscal Year 2023, the NYPD had budgeted $454.8 million, but as of December 31, 2022, they had spent nearly $412 million, making the overtime bill for FY 2023 on track to pass $820 million. It does not make New Yorkers safer to spend millions of dollars on overtime for police officers to remove people perceived as homeless or mentally ill from public spaces, or to stand around in subway stations looking at their phones. The bloated overtime budget is much better spent reallocated to agencies and programs that actually serve and protect New Yorkers.

Mayor Adams and I may often disagree on the most impactful ways to address crime and violence in our city, but I applaud his support of alternative solutions to violence, including violence interrupters and cure violence programs. The city’s Crisis Management System (CMS) is a network that deploys teams of credible messengers who mediate conflicts on the street and connect high-risk individuals to services that can reduce the long-term risk of violence. CMS provides non-punitive, wrap-around services including school conflict mediation, employment programs, mental health services, and legal services.

We have evidence that these alternatives to policing work to reduce violence: CMS data from 2010 to 2019 shows that the program has contributed to an average 40 percent reduction in shootings across program areas, compared to a 31 percent decline in shootings in the 17 precincts in New York City with the highest rates of violence.

Brownsville, Brooklyn’s 73rd Precinct exemplifies the success and necessity of cure violence programs. In December 2020, the police withdrew from their regular posts on Mother Gaston Boulevard for five days. Instead of a police presence, a cure violence group called Brownsville In, Violence Out watched over the two blocks between Pitkin and Sutter Avenues. No valid 911 or 311 calls were made during this pilot. A second round of this experiment a few months later saw the cure violence group and their community partners finding a missing 4-year-old and intervening in a fight brewing between groups of teenage girls, all without the help of police.

This is what public safety should look like: an investment in communities, robust support services, and allowing those closest to the problem to lead the solution.

It is also vital to adequately and robustly fund our public defender services. While free legal defender services for anyone who needs them are mandated by federal and local law, these organizations are consistently underfunded. It is low-income New Yorkers who ultimately face the consequences of a budget that favors district attorneys’ offices, deprived of the robust legal representation that they need and deserve. The city budget must ensure a high standard of quality legal representation for low-income New Yorkers.

Previously, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) contracted with community-based organizations and hotels to provide housing to people just released from prison. While meant to be a short-term solution, the housing that this program provided to people who otherwise would have had to turn to the shelter system was critical for many people’s successful reentry into their communities. These hotels were staffed by security, case managers, and nurses, giving people in-home access to resources they would not have in a shelter. In January of last year, Mayor Adams awarded a new $40 million no-bid contract to the organization Exodus Transitional Communities; while Exodus ultimately shut down their program, the city should allocate new funding for a request for proposals to continue operating this service.

Lastly, in 2021, my office released a report on reimagining safety in our schools, including phasing out School Safety Agents and policing infrastructure. Prior to the pandemic, there were roughly 5,000 SSAs assigned to schools; as of late last month, according to a report released by the Independent Budget Office, that number had decreased to 3,900. The IBO also reported no indication the city plans to significantly expand the safety division to pre-pandemic levels over the next four years. The presence of SSAs and police more broadly serve only as a reaction to violence or criminal behavior and do not create safety. This natural attrition of SSAs provides an opportunity for the city to invest in creating safe school environments by hiring more guidance counselors and social workers, expanding restorative justice and violence interruption programming, implementing trauma-informed and healing-centered school environments, sustaining and creating new Student Success Centers, and increasing youth employment opportunities.

Thank you.