File #: Res 1037-1999    Version: * Name: Oversight Hearing Police Medication for arrested suspects
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Health
On agenda: 10/27/1999
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the appropriate Committee of the Council to hold an oversight hearing on the Police Department's procedures regarding the confiscation of life-sustaining prescription medication used to treat HIV-related illness, asthma or other disabling or life-threatening illnesses, from individuals arrested by the police.
Sponsors: Margarita Lopez, Victor L. Robles, Una Clarke, Stephen DiBrienza, Pedro G. Espada, Kathryn E. Freed, Karen Koslowitz, Helen M. Marshall, Bill Perkins, Mary Pinkett, Christine C. Quinn, Philip Reed, June M. Eisland, Ronnie M. Eldridge, Kenneth K. Fisher, Julia Harrison, Stanley E. Michels, Jose Rivera
Council Member Sponsors: 18
Attachments: 1. Committee Report - Res. No. 1037-A
Date Ver.Prime SponsorAction ByActionResultAction DetailsMeeting DetailsMultimedia
2/8/2000*Margarita Lopez City Council Filed by CouncilPass Action details Meeting details Not available
2/7/2000*Margarita Lopez Committee on Health Hearing Held by Committee  Action details Meeting details Not available
2/7/2000*Margarita Lopez Committee on Health Filed by CommitteePass Action details Meeting details Not available
10/27/1999*Margarita Lopez City Council Referred to Comm by Council  Action details Meeting details Not available
10/27/1999*Margarita Lopez City Council Introduced by Council  Action details Meeting details Not available
Res. No. 1037 Title Resolution calling upon the appropriate Committee of the Council to hold an oversight hearing on the Police Department's procedures regarding the confiscation of life-sustaining prescription medication used to treat HIV-related illness, asthma or other disabling or life-threatening illnesses, from individuals arrested by the police. Body By Council Members Lopez, Robles, Clarke, DiBrienza, Espada, Freed, Koslowitz, Marshall, Perkins, Pinkett, Quinn and Reed; also Council Members Eisland, Eldridge, Fisher, Harrison, Michels, Rivera. Whereas, Upon the arrest of an individual Police Department policy requires officers to confiscate any medication in the possession of such individual; and Whereas, Police Department policy also prohibits third parties from delivering prescription medication to an individual arrested unless such individual is transferred to a city hospital and the medication is dispensed by a physician; and Whereas, Even if the arrested individual is taken to a city hospital, there is no assurance that the hospital pharmacy has the same crucial medication which has been prescribed to such individual; and Whereas, In the case of individuals arrested who have AIDS and are taking HIV-inhibiting drugs, they must adhere to a strict time-based dose regimen of specific drugs, or risk developing a drug-resistant strain of the virus; and Whereas, The individual arrested who develops a drug-resistant strain of the virus which causes AIDS may then infect others, thus causing a very serious public health risk; and Whereas, The Police Department agreed in a 1992 settlement of the case Grubbs v. Safir, 92 Civ. 2132 (U.S. District Court), to improve certain conditions affecting pre-arraignment detainees, including improved access to prescription medication; and Whereas, Seven years after the Department agreed to such settlement, current Police Department policy continues to be insensitive to the needs of individuals arrested who require their prescribed medications,; now, therefore; be it Resolved, That the appropriate Committee of the Council of the City of New York hold an oversight hearing on the Police Department's procedures regarding the confiscation of life-sustaining prescription medication used to treat HIV-related illness, asthma or other disabling or life-threatening illnesses, from individuals arrested by the police. Referred to the Committee on Health LS#2313 JO:ts 10/22/99 T-1999-11