Central Park 5 exoneree and council member says police stopped him without giving a reason

New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam says he was pulled over by city police without being given an explanation

Yusef Salaam Traffic Stop-New York (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated group of men known as the Central Park Five, says he was stopped and pulled over by police without being given an explanation.

The police stop in New York City on Friday casts a renewed light on the How Many Stops Act, a police transparency bill that sparked a fight between City Council members and Mayor Eric Adams after the mayor, a former police captain, vetoed the legislation. It would have required officers to publicly report on all investigative stops, including relatively low-level encounters with civilians.

In the encounter with Salaam, which lasted less than a minute at 6:20 p.m., a police officer — heard in body camera footage provided by the New York Police Department — asks Salaam to roll down the back windows of his car.

But after Salaam identifies himself as a council member, the officer quickly withdraws without providing further explanation for the stop.

Police later said in a statement that Salaam was stopped for driving with a dark tint beyond legal limits.

The police officer conducted himself professionally and respectfully, the NYPD said in the statement, adding that he used discretion to allow the council member to complete his official duties.

“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 underreported," Salaam, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Salaam and four other Black or Latino men were falsely accused and convicted of raping and beating a white jogger in Central Park in 1989. Salaam was arrested at age 15 and imprisoned for almost seven years. Their convictions were eventually overturned through DNA evidence.

Salaam won a seat on the New York City Council in November and represents a central Harlem district.