Assembly BillIntroduced
A 2481: Establishes the crime of aggravated offering of a false accusation against a peace officer or police officer for knowingly reporting false or baseless information relating to wrongdoing by a police or peace officer to a law enforcement agency; creates a private right of action for damages.
What A 2481 does, verified July 1, 2026
The proposed law creates a new crime, "aggravated offering of a false accusation against a police officer," which involves knowingly reporting false or baseless information to a law enforcement officer about a police officer's wrongdoing. This crime is classified as a class D felony. The law also establishes a private right of action, allowing police officers or their representatives to sue for damages suffered as a result of a false accusation against them. In these cases, the court may award reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing plaintiff. The law takes effect immediately.
Bill journey
1IntroducedCurrent
2In CommitteePending
3First Chamber FloorPending
4Second ChamberPending
5GovernorPending
6ChapteredPending
Last action: referred to codes (2026-01-07)Alert me
Author and sponsors
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| Jan. 07, 2026 | referred to codes |
| Jan. 17, 2025 | referred to codes |
Latest bill textIntroduced version, January 17, 2025 · 350 words
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2481 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 17, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. STERN, PHEFFER AMATO, BERGER, BUTTENSCHON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law and the civil rights law, in relation to creating the crime of aggravated offering of a false accusation against a police officer and creating a private right of action The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 240.64 to 2 read as follows: 3 § 240.64 Aggravated offering of a false accusation against a police 4 officer or peace officer. 5 A person is guilty of aggravated offering of a false accusation 6 against a police officer or peace officer when, knowing the information 7 reported to be false or baseless, such person reports, by word or 8 action, to a law enforcement officer or agency, wrongdoing by a police 9 officer or peace officer in the performance of such officer's duties. 10 Under this section, police officer and peace officer are as defined 11 under section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law. 12 Aggravated offering of a false accusation against a police officer or 13 peace officer is class D felony. 14 § 2. The civil rights law is amended by adding a new section 50-h to 15 read as follows: 16 § 50-h. Private right of action; false accusation. A police officer 17 or peace officer, or their representative, may bring an action to 18 recover damages suffered by reason of a false accusation against such 19 police officer or peace officer in violation of section 240.64 of the 20 penal law. In any action brought under this section, the court may award 21 reasonable attorney's fees to a prevailing plaintiff. 22 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01463-01-5
Text of A 2481 as introduced, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions