Int. No. 1234-A
By Council Members Levine, Cumbo, Deutsch, Richards, Constantinides, Koslowitz, Chin, Treyger, Maisel, Levin, Rosenthal, Kallos, Vallone, Gibson, Rodriguez, Williams, Ayala and Cornegy
A Local Law to amend the New York city charter, in relation to creating an office for the prevention of hate crimes
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Chapter 1 of the New York city charter is amended by adding a new section 20-g to read as follows:
§ 20-g Office for the prevention of hate crimes. a. The mayor shall establish an office for the prevention of hate crimes. Such office may be established within any office of the mayor or as a separate office or within any other office of the mayor or within any department the head of which is appointed by the mayor. Such office shall be headed by a coordinator who shall be appointed by the mayor or the head of such department. For the purposes of this section only, “coordinator” shall mean the coordinator of the office for the prevention of hate crimes.
b. Powers and duties. The coordinator shall have the power and the duty to:
1. Advise and assist the mayor in planning and implementing for coordination and cooperation among agencies under the jurisdiction of the mayor that are involved in prevention, awareness, investigation and prosecution, and impact on communities of hate crimes.
2. Create and implement a coordinated system for the city’s response to hate crimes. Such system shall, in conjunction with the New York city commission on human rights’ bias response teams, the police department, and any relevant agency or office, coordinate responses to hate crime allegations.
3. Review the budget requests of all agencies for programs related to hate crimes, and recommend to the mayor budget priorities among such.
4. Prepare and submit to the mayor and the council and post on the city’s website by January 30 of each year an annual report of the activities of the office, regarding the prevalence of hate crimes during the previous calendar year and the availability of services to address the impact of these crimes. Such report shall include but need not be limited to the following information: (i) identification of areas or populations within the city that are particularly vulnerable to hate crimes, (ii) identification and assessment of the efficacy of counseling and resources for victims of hate crimes, making recommendations for improvements of the same, and (iii) collation of city, state and federal statistics on hate crime complaints and prosecutions within the city, including incidents by offense, bias motivation, and demographic characteristics such as age and gender of offenders.
5. Study the effectiveness of, and make recommendations with respect to, the expansion of safety plans for neighborhoods and institutions that are particularly vulnerable to hate crimes, and the resources available for victims. This paragraph shall not require the disclosure of material that would reveal non-routine investigative techniques or confidential information or where disclosure could compromise the safety of the public or police officers or could otherwise compromise law enforcement investigations or operations.
6. Serve as liaison for the city with providers of victim services, community groups, and other relevant nongovernmental entities and assist in the coordination among such entities on reporting and responding to allegations of hate crimes, to ensure that city residents have access to relevant services after hate crime events.
7. Perform other duties as the mayor may assign.
§2. This local law takes effect nine months after it becomes law.
LS # 3942
MKW
1/15/19