NYC Police Encryption Legislation Becomes Law
- The New York State Broadcasters Association
- 7 days ago
- 1 min read
Last month, the New York City Council passed a bill requiring NYPD to make police communications public. Mayor Mamdani let the bill go into effect by not issuing a veto. As a result, the law goes into effect as Local Law 46 of 2026.
According to the new law, NYC law enforcement agencies are required to:
Adopt a written policy that gives journalists and the public access to information about critical incidents over a city-wide unencrypted channel in real time.
Provide journalists (not the public) access to encrypted radio communications transmitted over all precinct-level, borough-level, transit, and housing bureau channels, and any other department channel that does not routinely transmit sensitive information.
Journalists would pay reasonable costs, not to exceed costs incurred by the department to provide such access.
Sensitive information will not be made available to the public or professional journalists.
NYPD has 180 days to publish a proposal, which will then be put out for public comment.
We will have work to do to get NYPD to implement the laws. Also, we have more work to do to pass similar legislation in Albany.
You can access the bill (Int. 1460A-2025) that passed the NY City Council here.
You can access the legislative history and the new law here.
