BUFFALO, NY (WBFO) – Just days after ordering local governments and police to rework their models or lost state funding, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed additional pieces of legislation to reform police and law enforcement practices.
Cuomo announced he would sign three bills into law during his Monday COVID briefing, an event which in recent weeks has become just as much about addressing social unrest as it has the health emergency and related economic reopening.
A second bill signed Monday requires law enforcement officers report when they discharge their weapon no later than six hours after the incident. The third bill signed requires police provide medical and mental health assistance to individuals in their custody when needed.
These newly signed laws follow additional reforms signed Friday, known as “Say Their Names” reforms. Those measures include the repeal of section 50-a. which previously kept past disciplinary records of law enforcers private.
Cuomo also spoke Monday of the executive order he issued the previous Friday, the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.
“Every community has to now come to the table as a collaborative. Local leadership, police, community activists, and redesign their public safety function,” he said. “How do we change the police? How do we take this moment and and actually institutionalize it to have progress?”
Under the order, local governments entities have until April 1, 2021 to legislate a new police model or lose state funding.