STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1874 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. WALCZYK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to the crime of criminal impersonation in the first degree The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 190.26 of the penal law, as amended by chapter 2 of 2 the laws of 1998 and subdivision 1 as amended by chapter 434 of the laws 3 of 2008, is amended to read as follows: 4 § 190.26 Criminal impersonation in the first degree. 5 A person is guilty of criminal impersonation in the first degree when 6 [he] such person: 7 1. (a) Pretends to be a police officer or a federal law enforcement 8 officer as enumerated in section 2.15 of the criminal procedure law, or 9 wears or displays without authority, any uniform, badge or other insig- 10 nia or facsimile thereof, by which such police officer or federal law 11 enforcement officer is lawfully distinguished or expresses by [his or 12 her] such person's words or actions that [he or she] such person is 13 acting with the approval or authority of any police department or acting 14 as a federal law enforcement officer with the approval of any agency 15 that employs federal law enforcement officers as enumerated in section 16 2.15 of the criminal procedure law; and 17 [2.] (b) So acts with intent to induce another to submit to such 18 pretended official authority or otherwise to act in reliance upon said 19 pretense and in the course of such pretense commits or attempts to 20 commit a felony; or 21 2. (a) Pretends to be a member of a board of elections or an election 22 officer, as such terms are defined by section 1-104 of the election law, 23 or an employee thereof; and 24 (b) So acts with intent to cause another to act in reliance upon such 25 pretense; or EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD05502-01-5
S. 1874 2 1 3. Pretending to be a duly licensed physician or other person author- 2 ized to issue a prescription for any drug or any instrument or device 3 used in the taking or administering of drugs for which a prescription is 4 required by law, communicates to a pharmacist an oral prescription which 5 is required to be reduced to writing pursuant to section thirty-three 6 hundred thirty-two of the public health law. 7 Criminal impersonation in the first degree is a class E felony. 8 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed- 9 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.