What's happening
This bill requires new paid police officers, starting January 1, 2021, to reside in the jurisdiction they serve for at least one year prior to appointment and maintain residency.
Why it matters
Limits future hiring to local residents. By requiring new police officers to live within the municipality for at least a year before appointment, the bill aims to ensure that officers have a personal stake in and knowledge of the community they will serve.
Ends long-standing exemptions. Existing rules allowed officers to live in neighboring counties; this bill eliminates those exemptions for new hires, potentially making police forces more locally rooted and less reliant on commuters.
Could reshape police demographics and dynamics. This residency requirement may alter the applicant pool, affecting who can become a police officer, and may drive departments to engage more with local populations to recruit new officers.
Applies primarily to new hires, not incumbents. Current officers are mostly unaffected unless they change residences, which helps avoid abrupt staffing issues but sets a new standard for future recruitment and community relations.
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Who cares
Prospective paid police officers
Beginning January 1, 2021, the bill would require appointees to have lived in the municipality they would serve for one year before appointment and to continue living there.
Current paid police officers living outside their employing municipality
The bill would end the specified residency exemptions for paid officers after January 1, 2022.
Municipal police departments
The bill would restrict where paid recruits may live, replacing the specified exemptions allowing residence in surrounding counties with a local residency requirement.
Police forces in cities with one million or more residents
The bill would also end the specified existing-residence exemption for paid officers after January 1, 2022, and impose the one-year local residency requirement on new paid appointees beginning January 1, 2021.
Headline styles
Require Police to Live Locally
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to rules
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
8612
IN SENATE
June 22, 2020
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to residency requirements for police officers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 3 of the public officers law, as amended by chapter 1004 of the laws of 1966, is amended to read as follows:
2. Neither the provisions of this section or of any general, special or local law, charter, code, ordinance, resolution, rule or regulation, requiring a person to be a resident of the political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state for which he or she shall be chosen or within which his or her official functions are required to be exercised, shall apply to the appointment on or before January first, two thousand twenty-one of a person as a member of the police force of any political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state if such person resides (a) in the county in which such political subdivision or municipal corporation is located; or (b) in a county within the state contiguous to the county in which such political subdivision or municipal corporation is located; or (c) in a county within the state contiguous to such political subdivision or municipal corporation; or (d) in a county within the state contiguous to a county described in item (c) hereof where the former is less than fifteen miles from such political subdivision or municipal corporation, measured from their respective nearest boundary lines; or (e) in a county within the state contiguous to a county described in item (d) hereof where the former is less than thirty miles from such political subdivision or municipal corporation, measured from their respective nearest boundary lines. Provided, however, such exemption shall not apply to paid members of a police force after January first, two thousand twenty-two. Beginning January first, two thousand twenty-one, no person shall be appointed a paid member of any police force that does not reside in the political subdivision or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16766-01-0
S. 8612 2
municipal corporation of the state for which he or she shall be chosen for one year prior to being appointed and continues to reside therein.
§ 2. Subdivision 19 of section 3 of the public officers law, as added by chapter 509 of the laws of 1986, is amended to read as follows:
19. Any person who resides in this state and who is currently employed as a member of the police force employed on or before January first, two thousand twenty-one, a paid member of the uniformed force of a paid fire department or department of corrections in the correctional service classification of the classified civil service, of a city of over one million population, shall be exempt from the provisions of subdivisions one, two and nine of this section upon compliance with the procedure set forth in this subdivision. Any person seeking to benefit from the exemption created by this subdivision shall notify his or her respective employer in writing of said intention within thirty days from the effective date of this subdivision and shall specify his or her then current residence address. The exemption created by this subdivision shall be applicable only to said actual designated residence and not to any residence that any subject currently employed member may thereafter establish; provided, however, that any such currently employed member who resides outside this state shall have one year from the effective date of this subdivision within which to establish residence as required pursuant to subdivisions one, two and nine of this section and comply with the notice requirements of this subdivision. Said residence shall constitute a lawful residence for all purposes notwithstanding any provision to the contrary of any general, special or local law, charter, code, ordinance, resolution, rule or regulation. Such exemption shall not apply to paid members of the police force in a city with a population of one million or more after January first, two thousand twentytwo. Beginning January first, two thousand twenty-one, no person shall be appointed a paid member of the police force in a city with a population of one million or more that does not reside in the political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state for which he or she shall be chosen for one year prior to being appointed and continues to reside therein.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to residency requirements for police officers
Purpose or general idea of bill
The purposed bill would require that police officers live in the commu- nity that they serve.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 amends public officers law subdivision 2 of section 3 to provide an exemption for police officers after January first, two thou- sand twenty-two. Beginning January first, two thousand twenty-two, no person shall be appointed a paid member of any police force that does not reside in the political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state.
Section 2 amends section 3 of subdivision 19 of the public officers law.
Section 3 sets forth the effective date.
Justification
Residency requirements for police officers can be tied to better relationship between the officers and the community they serve. Police officers who live in the city they serve belong to that neighborhood, and as such are connected to the community beyond a paycheck. It's time we return to community policing which will communities members to iden- tify and connect with officers who understand the neighborhood
Prior legislative history
New bill
Fiscal implications
To be determined
Effective date
Immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.