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Council committee questions appearance-ticket form changes and noise-ordinance point increase; privacy and data-collection debated
Summary
The Public Safety Committee reviewed proposed changes to the noise-ordinance enforcement process and a revised appearance-ticket form that requests Social Security numbers and race/ethnicity, prompting privacy and data-collection concerns from council members.
The Public Safety Committee reviewed a proposed amendment to Schenectady City Code (section 183-1) to increase the point value for violations of the city's noise ordinance (chapter 122) and discussed a revised appearance-ticket form that would accompany enforcement.
Mr. Rivera noted the committee had a revised version of the appearance ticket developed with the police department and corporation counsel; the document was described as acceptable to the court. Miss Corkfield asked why the form requested a Social Security number and said she would not personally want to write her SSN on a paper form that would pass through multiple hands: "if I got 1 of these I would not want to share my social security number on this written document to be passed around." Corporation counsel responded that the appearance ticket "goes to the defendant." Council members asked follow-up questions about who would complete the race and ethnicity fields and whether entries would be self-identified or determined by an officer.
Ms. Farley (council member) argued that capturing race and ethnicity is a "valuable data point" to check for disproportionate enforcement and for accountability, while other members urged care in how the data are collected and recorded. Miss Parker asked how the form would be captured (handwritten or electronic); a staff speaker answered that appearance tickets are typically handwritten.
The committee did not adopt ordinance language during the discussion; committee members were reminded that a public hearing on the item would be on Monday, Jan. 27. Members asked corporation counsel and the police department to review concerns about Social Security numbers, clarify whether race and ethnicity entries would be self-reported or officer-entered, and propose refinements (drop-downs, optional fields, confidentiality safeguards) before the public hearing.
The transcript does not record a vote on the ordinance; the conversation ended with direction to consult PD and corporation counsel and to return with revisions for the public hearing.
