City Council shifts more responsibility away from NYPD to other agencies

(Picture from Getty Images)

The City Council passed a pair of bills Thursday that will shift some power from the NYPD to other city agencies — the latest legislative move in response to last summer’s protests for police reform.  Council members voted 39-10 to create a new unit in the Department of Transportation to respond to all crashes in the city that leave a person hospitalized.

Right now, DOT only responds if someone dies or is expected to die as a result of a crash.  The new law, which stops short of earlier proposals to fully remove the NYPD from crash investigations, is expected to have DOT officials on the scene of more than 3,000 more crashes each year.

The NYPD will still handle any investigation where criminality is suspected.  “We think this bill does a lot in really centering DOT on being the lead when we’re looking at the root causes and the causes that can [be] made on crashes,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson said. 

The council also voted 43-6 to move credentialing of the New York press corps from the NYPD to City Hall.

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