What's happening
This bill requires New York City's police and parks departments to regularly report and publish crime and summons data for all city parks.
Why it matters
Enables public oversight and transparency. By mandating that crime and summons data for all city parks (including playgrounds, recreation centers, beaches, and pools) be published online, the bill empowers residents, advocacy groups, and local officials to monitor safety and enforcement trends in public spaces.
Improves data granularity and accountability. The legislation requires detailed reporting, breaking down crimes and summonses by type (e.g., felonies, misdemeanors, parking violations, illegal dumping, lewd acts, illegal vending, etc.) and by location (precincts, housing police areas, transit districts), which can reveal patterns and help target policy responses.
Supports equitable resource allocation and public safety strategies. Regular, specific crime reporting can highlight disparities or problem areas in park safety, potentially guiding better distribution of police, maintenance, or programming resources to parks that need them most.
Promotes timely and accessible information. By setting deadlines for reports to be posted online (within five business days of submission and within a month of each quarter’s end), the bill ensures that both the city council and the general public receive up-to-date information, fostering trust and informed civic engagement.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Report Crime in City Parks
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to cities
- Referred to cities
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1575
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 10, 2017
Introduced by Sen. AVELLA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Cities
AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the New York police department and the parks and recreation department to submit to the city council reports of crime in all parks, including playgrounds, recreation centers, beaches and pools within the city; and repealing certain provisions of such law relating thereto
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Paragraph 4 of subdivision a of section 14-150 of the administrative code of the city of New York is REPEALED and a new paragraph 4 is added to read as follows:
4. Reporting requirements for crime status in parks. (a) In cities having a population of one million or more inhabitants, the police department and parks and recreation department shall issue a crime status report. Such report shall include:
(i) the total number of crime complaints, categorized by class of crime, indicating whether the crime is a misdemeanor or felony, for each patrol precinct, including housing bureau and transit bureau complaints within each precinct;
(ii) arrests, categorized by class of crime, indicating whether the arrest is for a misdemeanor or felony, for each patrol precinct, housing police service area, transit district, street crime unit and narcotics division; and
(iii) summons activity, categorized by type of summons, indicating whether the summons is a parking violation, moving violation, environmental control board notice of violation, or criminal court summons for each patrol precinct, housing police service area and transit district.
(b) Such reports shall include the total number of major felony crime complaints for all parks under the jurisdiction of the department of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00825-01-7
S. 1575 2
parks and recreation. In addition, within one year of the effective date of this paragraph, the departments shall submit quarterly to the city council, the total number of major felony crime complaints for parks under the jurisdiction of the department of parks and recreation.
(c) The police department and the parks and recreation department also shall submit bi-annual reports on all summons activity, categorized by type of summons, indicating whether the summons is a parking violation, moving violation, environmental control board notice of violation, or criminal court summons. Such summons shall be broken down by type of summons, including but not limited to, illegal dumping, lewd acts, failure to comply with a sign, and illegal vending.
(d) The police department and the parks and recreation department shall conspicuously post all reports online via such department's website within five business days of the department's submission of such reports to the city council and no later than one month after the end of the quarter.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the New York police department and the parks and recreation department to submit to the city council reports of crime in all parks, including playgrounds, recreation centers, beaches and pools within the city; and repealing certain provisions of such law relating thereto
Purpose or general idea of bill
The purpose of the bill is to require the New York Police Department to issue a more substantive crime status report in parks within the jurisdiction of the department of parks and recreation including parks, playgrounds and recreation centers.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 of the bill repeals paragraph 4 of subdivision a of section 14-.150 of the administrative code of the city of New York and a new paragraph 4 is added that sets forth reporting requirements for crime status in parks.
Read the full memo (670 words)
The new section requires the police department and the department of parks and recreation to provide crime status reports to include the total number of crime complaints (categorized by class of crime, indicating whether the crime is a misdemeanor or felony) for each patrol precinct, including housing bureau and transit bureau complaints within each precinct; arrests (categorized by class of crime, indicating whether the arrest is for a misdemeanor or felony) for each patrol precinct, housing police service area, transit district, street crime unit and narcotics division; summons activity (categorized by type of summons, indicating whether the summons is a parking violation, moving violation, environmental control board notice of violation, or criminal court summons) for each patrol precinct, housing police service area and transit district; such reports shall include the total number of major felony crime complaints for all parks under the jurisdiction of the department of parks and recreation.
In addition, the department shall submit to the council, the total number of major felony crime complaints quarterly one year after enactment of this law for parks under the jurisdiction of the department of parks and recreation.
The Police and the Parks Department also shall submit biannual reports on all summons activity (categorized by type of summons, indicating) whether the summons is a parking violation, moving violation, environmental control board notice of violation, or criminal court summons, broken down by type of summons, i.e. illegal Dumping, Lewd Acts, Failure to Comply With A Sign, Illegal vending.)
The Police and/or Parks Department shall conspicuously post all reports online via the department's website within five business days of the department's submission of such reports to the City Council and no later than one month after the end of the quarter.
Section 2 sets forth an effective date thirty days after it shall have become law.
Justification
Currently the New York Police Department tracks crime in only 30 of the city's 1700 public parks and playgrounds. This is despite the fact that each of the 1700 public parks are located within a New York City police precinct. In addition, weekly data is currently available on only one New York City park w Central Park in Manhattan.
Given that each park is located within a police precinct there is no reason that tracking and reporting of crime in all parks, playgrounds and recreation centers could be made readily available.
Furthermore, the department of parks and recreation currently tracks arrests although it does not publicly release such data and they currently track weekly, monthly and weekly and yearly statically summons activity reports broken down by park.
This bill will revise the breadth and manner in which crime status reports are to be issued to the city council. Such information is necessary to adequately inform the public and to assist relevant agencies, including the police department and department of parks and recreation, in reducing criminal activity in city parks.
Prior legislative history
2015-16: S.1029 2013-14: S.5911
Fiscal implications
None
Effective date
This act shall take effect thirty days after it shall have become law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.