NYPD pulled over ‘Central Park 5’ Councilman Yusef Salaam as vote looms on bill requiring cops to record stops

NEW YORK — “Central Park Five” City Councilman Yusef Salaam says police stopped him without explanation as he drove with his family through Harlem on Friday night — an incident that comes as the City Council plans an override vote on Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of a bill that would require cops to document their street stops.

Salaam said he “was listening in to a call with my Council colleagues on speakerphone” when he was stopped.

“I introduced myself as Councilman Yusef Salaam, and subsequently asked the officer why I was pulled over,” Salaam said in a statement. “Instead of answering my question, the officer stated, ‘We’re done here,’ and proceeded to walk away.”

Salaam, who was just named chairman of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said that the officer should, at the very least, have explained why he was being pulled over. If the How Many Stops Act bill is made law over Adams’ veto, the cop would have also taken down Salaam’s name and filed a report about the stop.

Salaam said he was pulled over “in my beloved village of Harlem” but didn’t say exactly where or when on Friday night. An email to the councilmember for more information about the incident was not immediately returned.

An NYPD spokesman said the department was aware of Salaam’s claims and was looking into the incident.

“This experience only amplified the importance of transparency for all police investigative stops, because the lack of transparency allows racial profiling and unconstitutional stops of all types to occur and often go unreported,” said Salaam.

Salaam on Friday had agreed to attend a Saturday night NYPD ride-along with other City Council members in the hope of better learning how cops deal with the public while responding to calls.

But after the incident, Salaam, who was exonerated after spending years in prison as one of the “Central Park Five” teens wrongly accused in the 1989 Central Park jogger rape case, canceled his plan to attend the event.

“While it is imperative for all of us as New Yorkers to understand the difficult tasks that we ask the NYPD to take on, it is also critical to understand the lived experiences of those subjected to unjust police stops in this city,” he said.

“Many of us in the Council know what it’s like to feel vulnerable and powerless when stopped by an officer, because we have personally experienced triggering interactions like I had last night.”

About 10 council members had agreed to go on the Saturday evening ride-along. The legislators were expected to meet at the 28th Precinct station house on Frederick Douglas Blvd. at about 5 p.m., watch a police roll call and then go on patrol with officers.

Mayor Adams, who insiders say is using the ride-along to encourage legislators not to overturn his veto, is also scheduled to attend.

Emails to the mayor’s office for comment about Salaam’s stop were not immediately returned.

Salaam’s council colleagues railed against Friday’s stop, with Democratic Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers calling the interaction “a glimpse into what every day Black and Brown New Yorkers encounter.”

“Glad my colleague, @dr_yusefsalaam, and his family made it home safely last night,” she wrote on X.

Adams said he vetoed the How Many Stops Act because requiring cops to document every one of their stops would take too much of their time from policing. The bill is “extremely detrimental to public safety,” Adams said.

Adams announced the veto Jan. 19. The Council will hold its overturn vote on Tuesday.

The How Many Stops Act, which passed the Council last month, lays out three levels of police encounters that cops would have to document. Supporters said the law would prevent the return of the kind of biased law enforcement the city saw during the Bloomberg-era peak of stop-question-and-frisk policing.

Salaam has vowed to seek the override of Adams’ veto ever since the mayor vetoed the bill. He and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams have accused the mayor of peddling a “false narrative” about the bill with an aim to “mislead and incite fear” among New Yorkers.