What's happening
This bill increases the penalties for criminal impersonation in New York, making second degree a class E felony and first degree a class D felony.
Why it matters
Elevating criminal impersonation to felony status significantly increases potential prison sentences and long-term consequences for those convicted. , making prosecution more likely to result in substantial penalties and impacting future employment and civil rights for offenders.
The bill targets both traditional and modern forms of impersonation—explicitly including online and electronic means—reflecting lawmakers’ concern about the prevalence and dangers of digital fraud and identity theft.
By raising the penalty for impersonating police officers, public officials, or medical professionals, the law underscores the heightened risk and harm such deceptions pose to public safety and trust in institutions.
This change may serve as a deterrent, but it could also lead to more severe charges for individuals involved in relatively minor or ambiguous acts of impersonation, potentially increasing prosecutorial discretion and the stakes in plea negotiations.
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Who cares
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Increase Impersonation Penalties
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History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2583
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 20, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. PRETLOW -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to increasing the penalties for criminal impersonation in the first and second degrees
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 190.25 of the penal law, the section heading, the opening paragraph, subdivision 3 and the closing paragraph as amended by chapter 27 of the laws of 1980, subdivision 4 as added by chapter 304 of the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows: § 190.25 Criminal impersonation in the second degree.
A person is guilty of criminal impersonation in the second degree when he or she:
1. Impersonates another and does an act in such assumed character with intent to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud another; or
2. Pretends to be a representative of some person or organization and does an act in such pretended capacity with intent to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud another; or
3. (a) Pretends to be a public servant, or wears or displays without authority any uniform, badge, insignia or facsimile thereof by which such public servant is lawfully distinguished, or falsely expresses by his or her words or actions that he or she is a public servant or is acting with approval or authority of a public agency or department; and (b) so acts with intent to induce another to submit to such pretended official authority, to solicit funds or to otherwise cause another to act in reliance upon that pretense.
4. Impersonates another by communication by internet website or electronic means with intent to obtain a benefit or injure or defraud another, or by such communication pretends to be a public servant in order to induce another to submit to such authority or act in reliance on such pretense.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04463-01-7
A. 2583 2
Criminal impersonation in the second degree is a class [A misdemeanor] E felony.
§ 2. Section 190.26 of the penal law, as amended by chapter 2 of the laws of 1998, subdivision 1 as amended by chapter 434 of the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows: § 190.26 Criminal impersonation in the first degree.
A person is guilty of criminal impersonation in the first degree when he or she:
1. Pretends to be a police officer or a federal law enforcement officer as enumerated in section 2.15 of the criminal procedure law, or wears or displays without authority, any uniform, badge or other insignia or facsimile thereof, by which such police officer or federal law enforcement officer is lawfully distinguished or expresses by his or her words or actions that he or she is acting with the approval or authority of any police department or acting as a federal law enforcement officer with the approval of any agency that employs federal law enforcement officers as enumerated in section 2.15 of the criminal procedure law; and
2. So acts with intent to induce another to submit to such pretended official authority or otherwise to act in reliance upon said pretense and in the course of such pretense commits or attempts to commit a felony; or
3. Pretending to be a duly licensed physician or other person authorized to issue a prescription for any drug or any instrument or device used in the taking or administering of drugs for which a prescription is required by law, communicates to a pharmacist an oral prescription which is required to be reduced to writing pursuant to section thirty-three hundred thirty-two of the public health law.
Criminal impersonation in the first degree is a class [E] D felony.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.
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