Senate Bill S5475

                                BILL NUMBER:S5475

TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to harassing certain
employees of a transit agency or authority

PURPOSE OF BILL:

This bill will increase the safety of MTA employees by creating the
new crime of aggravated harassment in the second degree.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill would add a new subdivision 3-a to Section 240
30 of the Penal Law to provide that a person is guilty of aggravated
harassment in the second degree when they subject various transit
employees, such as bus drivers, to physical contact, including
spitting on them. It would be a class A misdemeanor.

Section two of the bill would provide that the act takes effect 90
days after it becomes law.

EXISTING LAW:

The criminal conduct addressed by this bill is subject to lesser
              

penalties under the existing Penal Law.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill.

JUSTIFICATION:

Increasing the penalty for subjecting transit employees to physical
contact is intended to reduce these deplorable attacks including
spitting on bus drivers and other transit employees by imposing a more
serious punishment. It would add a new subdivision (3-a) to Section
240 30 of the Penal Law to provide that the act of harassment,
including spitting, committed against certain transit employees shall
constitute the crime of aggravated harassment in the second degree, a
class A misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment up to one year.

Currently, spitting on a transit employee is prosecuted under Penal
Law 240.26, harassment in the second degree, which is a violation,
punishable by imprisonment up to only 15 days. And, since a violation
is not a crime, Those convictions are sealed, so that the police do
not know if an offender has previously been convicted of spitting on
transit employees. The specified transit employees in this bill are
the same as those listed in Penal Law 120.05 (assault in the second
degree), which likewise imposes a greater penalty for assaulting
certain transit employees.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.


EFFECTIVE DATE:

Section two of this bill states that this act shall take effect 90
days after the date on which it shall have become law.