Ignore new mayor edict: Council big
Crackdown on ‘sloppy’ cops bans shorts, odd shoelaces
City Council leaders vowed Wednesday to defy a new policy controlling interactions with senior officials in Mayor Adams’ administration — a move that followed revelations that NYPD top cop Ed Caban is also skeptical of the plan, the Daily News has learned.
The new policy, which first came to light Tuesday, requires Council members and other local elected officials to file written requests with the mayor’s office if they wish to speak with commissioners or other senior agency staff about a range of issues.
But City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) told her members Wednesday afternoon they should disregard the new directive, which she argued will hamper them from communicating with officials across city government.
“The Council will not be adhering to this excessively bureaucratic and inefficient process that only undermines the work of city government on behalf of New Yorkers,” the speaker wrote in a letter to members. “I encourage you to go about your business on behalf of your constituents and New Yorkers, as usual.”
The speaker’s missive came after Caban, the NYPD commissioner, voiced concern about the policy in a private meeting last Friday, where City Hall officials first relayed the new rule to agency honchos. Caban said in the virtual meeting that the requirement could prove a nuisance for NYPD precinct and borough commanders, according to a senior Adams administration official on the call and a second source briefed on the conversation.
Precinct and borough commanders engage with local elected officials on a daily basis about various topics, including public safety issues in their districts raised by constituents. Requiring elected officials to get a green light from City Hall before such conversations could make work hard for everyone involved, Caban warned, according to the sources.
“What [Caban] was saying is that they have such constant communication with elected officials that you would imagine that this would slow down communication,” the source who was on the call told The News this week, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He said he was happy, of course, to fill it out for any interactions he or anyone else at [Police Headquarters] had to do, but questioned whether and why his commanders would need to do it.”
NYPD spokesman Tarik Sheppard confirmed Caban raised the issue about commanders during last week’s call, but said the commissioner didn’t outright criticize the new policy.
Sheppard said elected officials won’t need City Hall clearance to speak with NYPD during emergencies. Rather, he said the policy will mostly apply to interactions about quality-of-life issues.
Earlier Wednesday, the mayor dismissed the notion that the policy will add an unnecessary bureaucratic step for elected leaders.
“This is not punitive, this is smart coordination of city resources, particularly with the manpower that has dropped a lot, and I need to make sure that my commissioners are being coordinated correctly,” he told The News. “Those electeds who are saying, ‘Well, we don’t want to do that’ … Then you have disorder. I don’t want to have disorder.”
In response to the speaker’s letter, Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said elected officials, including Council members, are already complying with the new request system. Garcia declined to name the elected officials or say which administration officials they’ve requested to speak with.
Under the policy, City Council members, state lawmakers and other local elected officials seeking to speak with agency commissioners or executive staffers must fill out a form on a new City Hall web page. The form requires officials to provide their home addresses, specifics about whom they want to speak with and why.
“Completion of this form does not result in a guarantee of a meeting or appearance. The city reserves the right to decline requests,” the form states. The mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which is led by longtime Adams adviser Tiffany Raspberry, will review and approve the requests.
An email first reported by the news outlet The City says interactions requiring a request include all meetings with commissioners, executive directors and senior agency staff as well as discussions about “enforcement” or issues “outside the scope of daily operations.”
Several local elected leaders interviewed by The News said they have commissioners’ cell numbers and talk with them directly for various work reasons, often multiple times a week.
Mandating preapproval for such talks would be counterintuitive, argued Manhattan Councilman Keith Powers.
“This policy would handcuff every Council member to do their job effectively, slow down city government, and hurt the ability of commissioners to do their jobs,” Powers, a Democrat, said. “It makes no sense.”
Ydanis Rodriguez, Adams’ transportation commissioner, had nothing but support for the new policy and said it’ll “continue to be possible” for him to speak directly with lawmakers despite it.
“Procedure is procedure, but for me this procedure will not have any negative impact,” Rodriguez, a former Council member, told The News.
Adams’ team has drawn criticism before for attempting to control agency interactions with the media and elected officials, including over a 2022 directive requiring City Hall to vet all agency-level press releases.
A Democratic Council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the latest policy runs counter to Adams’ focus on cutting red tape in government.
“Officials in government should be talking to each other,” the member said. “I can’t believe that’s even a question.”
They’re real fashion police: Fed up with sloppy cops, the NYPD has moved to update its dress code, banning shorts on transit beats and white turtlenecks while on patrol.
The department’s updated style guide, set to take effect next month, also instructs patrol officers not to wear tactical cargo pants and reinforces longstanding guidance including a ban on shoelaces that are not black.
Inspector Paul Saraceno, who led a committee that has reviewed police attire since last summer, presented the crackdown as an effort to ensure a uniform, professional-looking force, rather than a product of any specific faux pas.
“I believe that in every profession, if you take it seriously and you act professionally, you dress professionally, you present yourself the same way, it revolves around everything you do,” Saraceno said.
“If you’re not squared away, if you’re sloppy, it speaks to who you are,” he added. “We expect professionalism in every aspect.”
But the plan drew a rebuke from the city’s biggest cop union.
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, vowed to file a legal challenge to the new rules, predicting they would drive officers out of the the force.
“The department’s timing and handling of these changes is completely off,” he said in a statement. “The NYPD has much bigger problems to address – we are still understaffed by thousands and losing hundreds of cops every month.”
The new rules are set to take effect May 6, according to guidance issued Monday. Supervisors will still retain the power to authorize the use of short-sleeve shirts on days when the temperature is expected to top 65 degrees.
But short sleeves paired with V-necked sweaters are to be banned. Those outer garments call for a long-sleeve shirt and tie, according to the memo.
Saraceno said the department is also considering banning beards, except in cases where officers have medical or religious exemptions. In 2020, the NYPD relaxed a longstanding prohibition on facial hair.
Over the years, officers have sometimes relaxed in their selection of attire. After 9/11, for instance, more patrol officers were seen wearing cargo pants.
In 2013, then-Chief of Department Philip Banks, in a 10-page memo, outlined a crackdown on sloppy cops, urging officers to shine their shoes, cover their tattoos and straighten out their caps.
Banks, now the deputy mayor for public safety, said officers’ appearances must be “clean and conform to all standards.”
At the time, he told the Daily News that the public has more confidence in public servants who look professional.
This spring’s directive says that standard uniform pants, known as twill pants, must be worn by all officers in uniform. And choices will be limited to one style from one company.
Saraceno suggested the move is intended to prevent police partners having mismatched uniforms.
White turtlenecks, Saraceno said, are going the way of light-blue shirts banned by the NYPD three decades ago. The white turtlenecks are being ushered out because they show grime quickly.
In the winter months, when the temperature falls below freezing, NYPD winter hats will still be permitted, with emblazoned NYPD lettering front and center on the forehead.
Several police officers said they too often see officers with the lettering askew. They also balked at officers who wear the approved NYPD baseball cap tilted to the side or up. “You ever see a state trooper dressed poorly?” one officer asked. “You see them, and you know they mean business.”