The Right to Know law seeks to make certain that officers ask explicitly for consent for searches that require it. Crucially, the police must tell people that they can refuse a search, and that a search cannot happen without their permission. Officers must affirm that people understand what is happening.

Police officers have to record a person giving or refusing consent on body cameras if they wear them, and by hand if they do not. (All uniformed patrol officers will be required to wear body cameras by the end of the year.) Officers also must provide interpretation if a person speaks limited English.

The consent requirements do not apply to searches conducted with a warrant or under other exceptions to the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Those include when an officer sees evidence of a crime in plain view and when an emergency requires an officer to take immediate action to save lives.

When will people receive a business card from an officer?

Police officers were already required to give business cards to people who requested them after a stop. Officers must now hand out the cards — which list the officer’s name, rank and command, and the reason for the encounter — whenever they stop or search people they suspect are involved in a criminal activity who are ultimately not arrested or given a summons.

The police do not have to offer the cards during traffic stops, which make up a large portion of their encounters with civilians.

The card rule applies to stops at roadblocks and checkpoints, except for security at special events or locations that might be targets of crime . So, officers conducting bag checks at a subway station entrance do not need to hand out cards to people they stop. But if the police stop subway passengers after they have entered the station and release them, officers must offer the cards.

Officers assigned to cases must also offer business cards to crime victims and witnesses they interview.