NY State Senate Bill 2023-S4444

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Finance Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

Please enter your contact information

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A valid email address is required.

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 03, 2024	referred to finance
Feb 08, 2023	referred to finance

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A7898
Current Committee:: Senate Finance
Law Section:: Executive Law
Laws Affected:: Add §837-x, Exec L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2019-2020: S8512
2021-2022: S809, A6216

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Provides that no law enforcement agency shall use a chemical incapacitant except for pepper spray; defines terms.

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S4444

SPONSOR: FERNANDEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the executive law, in relation to prohibiting the use of
certain chemical incapacitants by law enforcement agencies

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

An act to prohibit the use of tear gas by law enforcement.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the Executive Law by adding a new section 837-v which
prohibits the use of chemical incapacitants by law enforcement agencies.

Section 2 provides definitions for the section. Section 3 sets forth the
effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Tear gas is banned from use in war by international law, but it is
commonly deployed by law enforcement in the United States as a method of
crowd control. Instead of being reserved as a tool of last resort, tear
gas is used and abused routinely by local police departments.

As protests grow across the United States against police brutality and
in honor of George Floyd, police officers have deployed tear gas and
pepper spray against peaceful demonstrators. In a particularly heinous
case, tear gas was used to clear protests from outside the White House
so the President could have a photo op. Tear gas has been used against
protestors across New York, including in New York City, Albany, and
Rochester. But the use of tear gas is not new. Police forces have been
using tear gas for decades to quell peaceful protestors, including
against against protestors in the Civil Rights Movement, and at Black
Lives Matter demonstrations following Michael Brown's murder.

Tear gas causes searing pain in the eyes, skin, lungs, mouth, or any
body part it touches. It can also cause coughing, nausea, and vomiting.
Tear gas chemicals are designed to activate pain-causing receptors.
Long-lasting exposure can cause blindness, glaucoma, potentially fatal
respiratory failure, and even immediate death from chemical burns to the
throat and lungs, according to the CDC. Infants and children are more
vulnerable to tear gas. There is also evidence that tear gas can cause
long-term emotional trauma.

There is no way to control tear gas once released, so it can often harm
individuals other than the intended target. Tear gas canisters them-
selves can hurt protestors. During recent protests against police
brutality, a protestor lost his eye after a tear gas canister was shot
in his face.

Moreover, tear gas is often ineffective at crowd control. Dr. Rohini
Haar, a public health scientist at University of California, Berkeley
has argued that there are few situations in which tear gas is an appro-
priate tool to control crowds. Rather than de-escalating the situation,
tear gas usually causes panic and further chaos. Instead of dispersing
crowds, it can often lead to further violence. For example, protests in
Rochester recently turned violent, only after police fired tear gas
canisters at peaceful demonstrators.

Tear gas is cruel and inhumane, and it has no place on our streets,
especially when it is so often used by police officers against peaceful
protestors exercising their first amendment rights. This bill would ban
the use of chemical incapacitants by law enforcement agencies. It
provides a limited exemption for the use of pepper spray in liquid spray
canisters of a volume no greater than 0.75 ounces, the volume available
for civilian use. This exemption is designed to allow officers to use
pepper spray as a less lethal option for officers trying to arrest a
violent individual, instead of tasers or batons. Its use is banned in
all crowd control contexts.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-2022: S809

2020: S8512

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4444
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 8, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by Sen. FERNANDEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance
 
 AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to prohibiting the use of
   certain chemical incapacitants by law enforcement agencies
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section  837-x
 to read as follows:
   § 837-X. PROHIBIT USE OF CHEMICAL INCAPACITANTS. 1. NO LAW ENFORCEMENT
 AGENCY  SHALL  USE  ANY  CHEMICAL INCAPACITANT, EXCEPT FOR PEPPER SPRAY.
 PEPPER SPRAY SHALL BE LIMITED TO LIQUID SPRAY CANISTERS OF A  VOLUME  NO
 GREATER  THAN  0.75  OUNCES,  AND  SHALL  NOT  BE USED FOR CROWD CONTROL
 PURPOSES.
   2. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, THE FOLLOWING  TERMS  SHALL  HAVE
 THE FOLLOWING MEANINGS:
   (A)  "LAW  ENFORCEMENT  AGENCY" MEANS ANY AGENCY WHICH IS EMPOWERED BY
 LAW TO CONDUCT AN INVESTIGATION OR TO MAKE AN ARREST FOR A  FELONY,  AND
 ANY AGENCY WHICH IS AUTHORIZED BY LAW TO PROSECUTE OR PARTICIPATE IN THE
 PROSECUTION OF A FELONY.
   (B) "CHEMICAL INCAPACITANT" MEANS THE FOLLOWING, TOGETHER OR SEPARATE-
 LY:
   (I)  TOXIC  CHEMICALS  AND THEIR PRECURSORS, EXCEPT WHERE INTENDED FOR
 PURPOSES NOT PROHIBITED UNDER THIS SECTION, AS LONG  AS  THE  TYPES  AND
 QUANTITIES ARE CONSISTENT WITH SUCH PURPOSES;
   (II)  MUNITIONS  AND DEVICES, SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO CAUSE TEMPORARY
 PAIN, TEMPORARY IRRITATION, TEMPORARY  DISRUPTION  OF  VITAL  PROCESSES,
 TEMPORARY   INCAPACITATION,  TEMPORARY  DISABILITY,  OR  PERMANENT  HARM
 THROUGH THE TOXIC PROPERTIES  OF  THOSE  TOXIC  CHEMICALS  SPECIFIED  IN
 SUBPARAGRAPH  (I) OF THIS PARAGRAPH, WHICH WOULD BE RELEASED AS A RESULT
 OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF SUCH MUNITIONS AND DEVICES;
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD08804-01-3
 S. 4444                             2

 
   (III)  ANY  EQUIPMENT  SPECIFICALLY  DESIGNED  FOR  USE  DIRECTLY   IN
 CONNECTION  WITH  THE  EMPLOYMENT  OF MUNITIONS AND DEVICES SPECIFIED IN
 SUBPARAGRAPH (II) OF THIS PARAGRAPH.
   (C)  "TOXIC  CHEMICAL"  MEANS  ANY CHEMICAL WHICH THROUGH ITS CHEMICAL
 ACTION ON BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES CAN CAUSE DEATH, TEMPORARY  PAIN,  TEMPO-
 RARY  IRRITATION,  TEMPORARY  DISRUPTION  OF  VITAL PROCESSES, TEMPORARY
 INCAPACITATION, TEMPORARY DISABILITY, OR PERMANENT  HARM  TO  HUMANS  OR
 ANIMALS. THIS INCLUDES ALL SUCH CHEMICALS, REGARDLESS OF THEIR ORIGIN OR
 OF  THEIR  METHOD  OF  PRODUCTION,  AND  REGARDLESS  OF WHETHER THEY ARE
 PRODUCED IN FACILITIES, IN MUNITIONS OR ELSEWHERE.
   (D) "PRECURSOR" MEANS ANY CHEMICAL REACTANT WHICH TAKES  PART  AT  ANY
 STAGE  IN  THE  PRODUCTION BY WHATEVER METHOD OF A TOXIC CHEMICAL.  THIS
 INCLUDES ANY KEY  COMPONENT  OF  A  BINARY  OR  MULTICOMPONENT  CHEMICAL
 SYSTEM.
   (E)  "KEY  COMPONENT  OF  BINARY  OR  MULTICOMPONENT CHEMICAL SYSTEMS"
 (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS "KEY COMPONENT") MEANS: THE PRECURSOR  WHICH
 PLAYS THE MOST IMPORTANT ROLE IN DETERMINING THE TOXIC PROPERTIES OF THE
 FINAL  PRODUCT  AND REACTS RAPIDLY WITH OTHER CHEMICALS IN THE BINARY OR
 MULTICOMPONENT SYSTEM.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Senate Bill S4444

Sponsored By

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Finance Committee

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments

Senate Bill S4444

Share this bill

Sponsored By

Nathalia Fernandez

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Finance Committee

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S4444 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments