Senate Bill S7058

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7058

SPONSOR: KLEIN
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the executive law, in relation to the
reporting of suspicious activity to the division of homeland security
and emergency services

 
PURPOSE:

The bill would create a suspicious rental activity hotline for employee
to call and report suspicious activity.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the executive law to add a new section requiring the
Division of Homeland security to establish a toll free hotline for
rental vehicle company employees to use if they notice suspicious rental
activity. The division is required to take the necessary steps to
educate the rental companies on the existence of the hotline and what
should and should not be considered suspicious rental activity.

              

Section 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it
shall have become law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

On October 31, 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov committed an act of
terror against innocent individuals in New York City. He used a rental
truck from Home Depot to deliberately and maliciously plow down pedes-
trians; killing at least eight and injuring 11 others. The use of vehi-
cles as weapons has been a rising trend in terrorist attacks. Prior to
the attack, Saipov had rented a truck from the same Home Depot earlier
in order to practice with the vehicle.

Attacks like the one Saipov perpetrated are on the rise, especially
since ISIS specifically called for the use of cars as weapons. From 2014
through April 2017, terrorists carried out 17 known vehicle-ramming
attacks worldwide. These attacks have resulted in 173 fatalities and 667
injuries, and the number continues to grow. Such a spike in these types
of attacks show that these attacks will continue to occur and therefore
action has to be taken to help educate the rental industry.

Creating a single hotline is meant to aid companies in directing them to
a single source that they should contact since there is confusion on
what entity is the proper group to contact when suspicions are raised.
Further, properly educating our car rental companies, while also giving
them a tool to contact the necessary authorities if they have suspicions
of illegal activity is a step forward to stopping another one of these
attacks.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill.

 
FISCAL IMPACT:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become law.