Law Enforcement & Police

• Carry your documents. You must have a valid license, registration, and proof of insurance in the car.
• Hands-free only. Holding a phone while driving is illegal in NY and adds 5 points to your license.
• Seat belts are required for the driver and all passengers. Young children need proper car seats.
• Move Over Law: slow down and change lanes for stopped police, fire, EMS, tow, and other vehicles with flashing lights.
• School buses: stop for a school bus with red lights flashing, in either direction.
• Points add up. 11 points in 18 months can lead to a suspended license.
• After a crash: stop, help anyone hurt, call 911 if needed, and exchange information. You may need to file a DMV accident report (MV-104) within 10 days.

Be calm and courteous. Most stops end quickly and safely when both sides stay calm.

• Pull over safely, turn off the engine, turn on the interior light at night, and keep your hands on the wheel.
• Tell the officer before you reach for anything, such as "My license is in the glove box."
• What officers may ask: your name, your license, registration, and insurance, and questions about where you're going. They may order the driver and passengers out of the car during a lawful traffic stop.
• What you must do: drivers must show a license, registration, and insurance. Follow lawful orders. Do not physically resist, even if you think the stop is unfair.
• Your rights: you have the right to stay silent beyond giving required documents. You may say politely, "I do not consent to a search." You may ask, "Am I free to go?"
• If you believe your rights were violated, don't argue on the roadside. Remember names and badge numbers and file a complaint later through official channels.

• Assault (3rd degree, §120.00): intentionally or recklessly causing "physical injury" to another person, meaning impairment of physical condition or substantial pain. It is a Class A misdemeanor. Higher degrees involve serious injury, weapons, or protected victims such as police officers, and are felonies.
• "Battery": New York does not have a separate crime called battery. Conduct other states call battery is usually charged as assault if someone is hurt, or harassment if there is unwanted physical contact without injury.
• Harassment (2nd degree, §240.26): intending to harass, annoy, or alarm someone by striking, shoving, or kicking them, or threatening to. It is a violation, not a crime.
• Menacing (3rd degree, §120.15): by physical menace, intentionally putting someone in fear of imminent serious physical injury.

Police officers make split-second decisions in situations most of us will never face: domestic disputes, car crashes, mental-health crises, and armed suspects. Many work nights, weekends, and holidays, and they see trauma that stays with them.

Respect runs both ways. Residents deserve fair, lawful treatment, and officers deserve cooperation and courtesy while they do a hard and dangerous job. When there are problems, the right place to resolve them is the complaint process or a courtroom, not the roadside.

Reach the department directly, not through this site. This site is not affiliated with the City of New Rochelle or its Police Department.

• Address: 475 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801
• Police Commissioner: Neil K. Reynolds, a 31-year department veteran, sworn in June 2025.

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The department's own Transparency Hub and F.O.I.L. request portal are the official way to request records, including body-camera footage and incident reports.

The State publishes reported crime for every police agency. Here is what it shows for New Rochelle, in plain numbers.

• New Rochelle police reported 1,228 index crimes in 2024, including 137 violent index crimes. That total is 22% below 2012 and 8.6% above 2019. Violent index crimes were 24% below 2012 and 6.8% below 2019.
• Reported crime is 24% above the 2021 low of 990 and 22% above the 2018 low of 1,003 — a statement that crime is "rising" is true when measured from those low years, but not against most years from 2010 to 2017.
• In 2024, New Rochelle's overall index crime rate (1,540 per 100,000 residents) was lower than White Plains (1,948) and Mount Vernon (1,910), and higher than Yonkers (1,391). Its violent crime rate (172) was lower than Yonkers (380) and Mount Vernon (520), and higher than White Plains (116). Of those four cities, New Rochelle's increase in crime since 2019 (8.6%) was the smallest.

This is reported crime, not convictions, and rates use 2020 Census population figures. See the City Assessment's Fire, Alarms and Public Safety page for the full picture with charts.

New York's Freedom of Information Law gives every resident the right to ask for public records: accident reports, incident reports, body-camera footage, 911 audio and more. Describe what you need below and this tool will write a properly worded request you can review, edit and send yourself.

What you type is sent to an AI drafting service to write the letter, then discarded — it is never sent to the Police Department or saved on this site. Avoid including anything you wouldn't want a third-party AI service to see. The draft is yours to review, edit and submit yourself through the department's official channels. This is general help with wording, not legal advice.

Friends and family mean well, but informal advice is often wrong or outdated, and a mistake can be costly. For legal questions, rely on official sources or a licensed New York attorney. If you are charged with a crime and can't afford a lawyer, you have the right to one appointed by the court.

For immigration questions, use only a licensed attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative. Beware of "notarios" who are not lawyers.

• Witness tampering (§215.10): knowing a person is or is about to be called as a witness, and wrongfully inducing or trying to induce them to skip the proceeding or avoid testifying. Higher degrees involve threats, force, or harm.
• Tampering with physical evidence (§215.40): believing something is about to be used in an official proceeding, and suppressing it by concealing, altering, or destroying it, or knowingly producing false evidence. It is a Class E felony.
• Simply giving a friend advice is not automatically a crime. These laws target wrongful conduct, such as pressuring, bribing, or threatening a witness, or hiding and destroying evidence. Suggesting that someone talk to a lawyer is always appropriate.
• Due process: everyone accused of a crime, citizen or not, is presumed innocent. They have the right to a lawyer, the right to remain silent, the right to know the charges, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to a fair trial.