A proposed bill will ban New York police officers who were fired or forced to resign due to disciplinary reasons from working elsewhere as cops.
According to CBS News, the bill, which was announced Saturday (April 24), was introduced by New York Senator Brian Benjamin, New York City Council Member Francisco Moya and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. “If you have the power and the privilege to enforce the law, you must be held to a higher standard,” Benjamin told the outlet. “That standard has to include making sure that cops know that they can’t just do whatever they want to do.”
If the bill is passed, officers who resign while under investigation, while facing pending criminal charges or while they are the focus of disciplinary action that could result in termination would not be able to be hired anywhere else in the state as a cop. The law would also apply to those officers who are coming from out of state.
The recent fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright inspired Benjamin to introduce the provision. Kim Potter, the 26-year veteran who shot and killed Wright, resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department days after the shooting. Under Benjamin’s proposed law, Potter would not be able to work as a law enforcement officer in the state of New York.
“The culture of policing is so toxic that this kind of a situation with Kim Potter and Daunte Wright could happen and enough is enough,” Benjamin said. “We have to be much more aggressive and much more clear.”
“A bill like this is a common-sense bill,” the state Senator added. “I actually don’t have any concerns about it passing because the bill is a very basic bill and it’s hard for anyone to justify, particularly in this moment, the idea that if a cop was fired in one jurisdiction, they can get a job in another jurisdiction.”