New York Senate Bill S00416 Latest Draft

   
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 416 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. GIANARIS, FERNANDEZ, GONZALEZ, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, PARK- ER, SALAZAR, SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to enacting the "keep police radio public act" The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "keep 2 police radio public act". 3 § 2. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 222-a to 4 read as follows: 5 § 222-a. Law enforcement communications public access. 1. For the 6 purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following 7 meanings: 8 (a) "emergency services organization" means a public or private agen- 9 cy, voluntary organization or group organized and functioning for the 10 purpose of providing fire, medical, ambulance, rescue, housing, food or 11 other services directed toward relieving human suffering, injury or loss 12 of life or damage to property as a result of an emergency, including 13 non-profit and governmentally-supported organizations, but excluding 14 governmental agencies. 15 (b) "encryption" means the encoding of voice communication on an 16 analog or digitally modulated radio carrier, which renders the communi- 17 cation difficult or impossible to be monitored by commercially available 18 radio receivers or scanners. 19 (c) "law enforcement agency" means any agency or department of any 20 municipality, any police district, or any agency, department, commis- 21 sion, authority or public benefit corporation of the state of New York 22 employing a police officer or police officers as that term is defined in 23 subdivision thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD00736-01-5 
 S. 416 2 1 (d) "radio communications" means verbal communications that are broad- 2 cast over a radio frequency either from a dispatch center to field 3 personnel, from field personnel to a dispatch center, or between field 4 personnel, and are accessible to all personnel monitoring that frequen- 5 cy. "Radio communications" does not include private communications 6 between two devices, such as a cellular telephone, or the transmittal of 7 data to or from a mobile data terminal, tablet, text messaging device, 8 or similar device. 9 (e) "sensitive information" means any portion of a radio communication 10 that, if disclosed, would: 11 i. deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or impartial adjudi- 12 cation; 13 ii. identify a confidential source or disclose confidential informa- 14 tion relating to a criminal investigation; and 15 iii. reveal criminal investigative techniques or procedures, except 16 routine techniques and procedures. 17 2. Any law enforcement agency in the state that encrypts any portion 18 of its radio communications shall ensure that all radio communications, 19 with the exception of sensitive information, are accessible, in real 20 time, to emergency services organizations and professional journalists 21 as defined in section seventy-nine-h of the civil rights law. In the 22 event that a law enforcement agency does encrypt radio communications 23 pursuant to this subdivision, the department of state shall, for the 24 purpose of verifying credentials, establish and administer a process for 25 granting real-time access to radio communications to emergency services 26 organizations and to professional journalists. Such a process for 27 granting access shall take no more than five business days to complete. 28 3. The department of state shall promulgate rules, regulations and 29 standards deemed necessary to implement the provisions of this section. 30 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 31 have become a law.