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Demonstrators rallied Thursday on the steps of City Hall in support of the City Council’s anticipated votes on policing issues. | Michael Appleton for The New York Times

From NYT:

The New York City Council voted on Thursday to override the mayoral vetoes of two bills that will greatly increase oversight of the Police Department and of its widespread use of stop-and-frisk tactics.

The votes amounted to a stinging personal defeat for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had denounced the legislation as dangerous to New Yorkers, and the actions offered a stark reminder of his diminished ability to influence city politics in the waning months of his administration.

The 51-member Council, led by its speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who is running for mayor, voted overwhelmingly, 39 to 10, to create an independent inspector general for the department. A second bill, to expand the ability of New Yorkers to sue the police over bias-based profiling, passed with exactly the 34 votes necessary for an override; the 15 no votes included Ms. Quinn’s, consistent with her opposition when the issue was previously put to a vote, in June.

Council members were unmoved by repeated warnings from the mayor and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly that the legislation would jeopardize what the administration views as a signature achievement: a crime rate lower than what many hardened New Yorkers once thought possible.

“This is a historic day in the City Council,” Ms. Quinn said, addressing members at the start of voting.

“We’ve seen in this city policies and practices in the Police Department that have gotten out of hand,” she told reporters earlier in the day, referring to the stop-and-frisk tactic. “This is a practice that needs immediate reform. We are getting it done.”

Mr. Bloomberg denounced the Council’s move as election-year pandering and vowed to mount a legal challenge against the bias-based profiling bill. “Make no mistake: the communities that will feel the most negative impacts of these bills will be minority communities across our city,” he said in a statement, “which have been the greatest beneficiaries of New York City’s historic crime reductions.”

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