BILL NUMBER:  S3669

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the penal law, in relation to
harassing certain employees of a transit agency or authority

 PURPOSE :

This bill will increase the safety of MTA employees by creating the
new offense of aggravated harassment in the second degree.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section one of the bill adds a new subdivision 3-a to Section 240.30
of the Penal Law to provide that a person is guilty of aggravated
harassment in the second degree when they subject various transit
employees, such as bus drivers, to physical contact, including
spitting on them. It would be a class A misdemeanor.

Section two of the bill provides that the act shall take effect on the
ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.

 EXISTING LAW :

The criminal conduct addressed by this bill is subject to lesser
penalties under the existing Penal Law.

              

 JUSTIFICATION :

Increasing the penalty for subjecting transit employees to physical
contact is intended to reduce these deplorable attacks including
spitting on bus drivers and other transit employees by imposing a more
serious punishment. It would add a new subdivision (3-a) to Section
240.30 of the Penal Law to provide that the act of harassment,
including spitting, committed against certain transit employees shall
constitute the crime of aggravated harassment in the second degree, a
class A misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment up to one year.

Currently, the conduct of spitting on a transit employee is prosecuted
under Penal Law 240.26, harassment in the second degree, which is a
violation, punishable by imprisonment of up to only 15 days. Because a
violation is not a crime, those convictions are sealed, so that the
police do not know if an offender has previously been convicted of
spitting on transit employees. The specified transit employees in this
bill are the same as those listed in Penal Law 120.05 (assault in the
second degree), which likewise imposes a greater penalty for
assaulting certain transit employees.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2016: S.5475 - Referred to Codes
2015: S.5475 - Referred to Codes

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.