Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, D-Bronx, is pictured speaking on the Assembly floor in defense of A.3516/S.416, which would require access to emergency services radio broadcasts.

In a largely party line vote, the state Legislature has approved legislation that would protect access to emergency services radio broadcasts.

A.3516/S.416 was sponsored by Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, D-Bronx, and Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Astoria, passed both legislative chambers on Thursday with Democrats largely in favor and Republicans largely opposing the measure. Assemblymen Andrew Molitor, R-Westfield, and Joe Sempolinski, R-Canisteo, voted against the bill, as did state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay. A.3516/S.416 will not go to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her approval.

The bill allows for exemptions of information deemed sensitive with the state coming up with exact rules through an administrative rule making process.

“I believe in transparency and I hear I hear some of my colleagues’ concerns,” Reyes said before voting on the bill last week. “Perhaps a 5 minute delay or 15 minute delay isn’t an impediment to journalists, but I guarantee you it is an impediment in the life of someone in the meeting when we talk about emergency services getting to a mass shooting, getting to a school or somebody who is in need. I think that you know in the city of New York in the district that I represent, we have you know emergency services that will respond in a very short amount of time. That’s not the case for some of our rural counties and we’ve heard from them how important it is that they have access in real time to this radio.”

Reyes said similar bills have been proposed in California and enacted in Colorado.

The legislation comes after many police departments across the country began encrypting their radio communications channels to comply with a mandate by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Security Policy. The policy change went into effect in December 2022 and required local and state agencies to gain the capabilities to be in compliance with encrypting radio traffic to protect personal information transmitted over the air.

Law enforcement officers and dispatchers frequently communicate over the radio and transmit personal information, including names and birth dates of individuals, to verify a person’s identity, for example, at a vehicle stop or to verify warrant information. Fire and medical radio traffic does not have to be encrypted as personal information is generally not communicated via the radio to comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

“Again, the devil is in the details when some of these bills come up,,” said Assemblyman Michael Durso, R-Massapequa Park, on the Assembly floor. “My concern is for the safety, not only of the public, but for our officers in general when they are doing their job. Just using the broad term of law enforcement in a bill like this doesn’t just include our local municipal police but it will include state troopers, anybody who falls under peace officer status, court officers, corrections officers and federal law enforcement. So when we have a bill like this that is so broad and doesn’t specify what would be sensitive and what would not, and then leave it up to an entity later on, I always err on the side of caution with keeping our law enforcement, our police, our sheriffs, our environmental conservation officers, their safety and the general public safety in mind.”