Requires the department of criminal justice services to develop, issue, and publish "race-blind charging" guidelines for a process whereby all prosecution agencies that prosecute criminal violations of the law as felonies or misdemeanors, shall implement a process by which an initial review of a case for potential charging is performed based on information, including police reports and criminal histories from the department of justice, from which direct means of identifying the race of the suspect, victim, or witness have been removed.
S09475 would require the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services to develop and publish “race-blind charging” guidelines for prosecution agencies. The bill directs prosecutors to conduct an initial charging review using police reports, criminal histories, and other materials after removing information that could identify the race of the suspect, victim, or witness. That first review would determine only whether a case should be charged at all; a second, ordinary review would then use the full, unredacted record to decide the specific charges, enhancements, or whether to seek a grand jury indictment.
The bill also requires documentation and retention of cases where the race-blind process changes the charging outcome, and it allows disclosure of those changes after sentencing or dismissal. Counties would collect data from the process for research purposes, and prosecution agencies could exclude certain categories of cases from the race-blind review, such as homicides, hate crimes, domestic violence and sex crimes, gang cases, certain child abuse matters, complex financial crimes, public integrity cases, and cases where the prosecutor was involved in the investigation. The bill takes effect 120 days after enactment, with implementation rules authorized immediately.
This bill would add a new section 296-e to the Executive Law and create a statewide framework for race-blind initial charging evaluations in prosecution agencies. It would impose new administrative duties on the Department of Criminal Justice Services, county governments, and district attorney offices, including redaction procedures, documentation requirements, data collection, and public-request disclosure obligations. It would also affect how felony and misdemeanor cases are screened before formal charging, while preserving a later full review with unredacted information.
The available voting history suggests mixed but somewhat favorable committee sentiment: the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee approved the bill 4-2. The bill’s findings and structure indicate a strong policy preference for reducing racial bias and increasing public confidence in charging decisions. At the same time, the existence of multiple carve-outs and implementation options suggests lawmakers anticipated operational concerns and the need for flexibility.
The main points of contention are likely to be whether race-blind charging meaningfully reduces bias without impairing prosecutorial discretion, and whether the administrative burden of redaction and dual-review procedures is practical for local offices. The bill itself acknowledges that some case types may be excluded because race may be relevant, redaction may be impracticable, or the charging decision depends heavily on victim credibility, forensic evidence, or investigative complexity. Another likely issue is the cost and feasibility of implementing the system, especially for counties and smaller prosecution agencies, as well as concerns about transparency versus confidentiality in documenting charging changes.