Relates to equipping vehicles with radio devices; provides that the prohibition against equipping a vehicle with radio receiving sets capable of receiving signals on police frequencies shall not apply to any person acting pursuant to their special duties who is a police officer, peace officer or employee of the division of homeland security and emergency services.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6166
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 21, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. BROOKS -- (at request of the Division of Homeland
Security and Emergency Services) -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to equipping
vehicles with radio devices
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 397 of the vehicle and traffic law, as amended by
2 chapter 843 of the laws of 1980, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 397. Equipping motor vehicles with radio receiving sets capable of
4 receiving signals on the frequencies allocated for police use. A
5 person[, not a police officer or peace officer, acting pursuant to his
6 special duties,] who equips a motor vehicle with a radio receiving set
7 capable of receiving signals on the frequencies allocated for police use
8 or knowingly uses a motor vehicle so equipped or who in any way knowing-
9 ly interferes with the transmission of radio messages by the police
10 without having first secured a permit so to do from the person author-
11 ized to issue such a permit by the local governing body or board of the
12 city, town or village in which such person resides, or where such person
13 resides outside of a city or village in a county having a county police
14 department by the board of supervisors of such county, is guilty of a
15 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or
16 imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both. Nothing in this section
17 contained shall be construed to apply to any person who holds a valid
18 amateur radio operator's license issued by the federal communications
19 commission and who operates a duly licensed portable mobile transmitter
20 and in connection therewith a receiver or receiving set on frequencies
21 exclusively allocated by the federal communications commission to duly
22 licensed radio amateurs. This section shall not apply to any person,
23 acting pursuant to their special duties, who is a police officer, peace
24 officer, or employee of the division of homeland security and emergency
25 services.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09235-01-9
