Categorizes the assault of a code enforcement official or other individual responsible for building inspection performing their lawful duties under such position as a class D felony.
Summary
This bill amends New York’s penal law to expand the offense of assault in the second degree to cover intentional physical injury to a code enforcement official, or to any other person whose duties include inspecting buildings or property for compliance with state or local building, fire prevention, property maintenance, or related safety codes, while that person is performing lawful duties. The bill is aimed at protecting code enforcement personnel and similar inspectors from assaults that occur in the course of enforcing housing, building, and safety standards.
Under the proposal, such conduct would be treated as a class D felony. The bill also retains the existing provision that makes it a second-degree assault to intentionally injure a process server while obstructing or retaliating against the performance of lawful duties. The new language is added as a separate subdivision to section 120.05 of the penal law and would take effect on November 1 following enactment.
Impact
The bill would amend section 120.05 of the Penal Law by adding a new category of second-degree assault for attacks on code enforcement officials and other building inspectors performing lawful duties. This would increase criminal penalties for assaults against these workers, elevating the offense to a class D felony and thereby providing greater legal protection for enforcement personnel involved in building, fire, property maintenance, and housing code compliance. The measure would affect defendants charged with such assaults, as well as municipalities and agencies that employ or rely on code enforcement staff.
Sentiment
There is no recorded committee transcript or vote history in the provided materials, so there is no documented debate or formal legislative sentiment to assess. Based on the bill’s text and caption, the measure appears to be framed as a public-safety and worker-protection bill, with an emphasis on safeguarding officials who perform inspections and enforce building-related laws.
Contention
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided record. Potential areas of concern, if raised in future debate, could include whether the bill should apply only to certified code enforcement officials or more broadly to any inspector, and whether elevating the offense to a felony is the appropriate penalty level. However, no opposing arguments or stakeholder positions are included in the available materials.
Same As
Categorizes the assault of a code enforcement official or other individual responsible for building inspection performing their lawful duties under such position as a class D felony.
Categorizes the assault of a code enforcement official or other individual responsible for building inspection performing their lawful duties under such position as a class D felony.
Categorizes the assault of an individual responsible for local parking enforcement performing their lawful duties under such position as a class D felony.
Categorizes the assault of certain employees of the New York city department of buildings or the New York city department of housing preservation and development as a class D felony.
Categorizes the assault of certain employees of the New York city department of buildings or the New York city department of housing preservation and development as a class D felony.
Establishes the crime of assault on sports officials and harassment of a sports official; makes harassment of a sports official a violation; requires the state education department to establish an information campaign to be distributed to all youth and school sports programs requiring such programs to disseminate information to parents and other spectators of such programs on the protections afforded sports officials.