New York State Bar Association President Scott Karson (Left) and Carrie H. Cohen, partner with Morrison & Foerster. (Right)

A New York State Bar Association task force report recommends adding hate crimes to the list of offenses that allow for eavesdropping and video surveillance warrants.

The recommendation was outlined in a report from the association's Task Force on Domestic Terrorism and Hate Crimes. The task force was convened after an attack during a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey in which a man stabbed five people. The attacker had rushed into a rabbi's home. 

One of the victims, Josef Neumann, died months following the attack, and New York lawmakers passed legislation against domestic terrorism in his name.

"Pervasive and insidious racism and race-based intolerance are grave injustices that cannot be tolerated," said Carrie Cohen, a partner at Morrison & Foerster and chair of the task force, in a statement. "Hopefully, this report can contribute to ensuring that people of every skin color, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation in New York are safe and adequately protected from hate crimes."

Officials say the state bar association was considering the topic before the Monsey attack, but the crime added impetus to the issue.

The report recommended expanding the list of offenses that allow for video surveillance and eavesdropping warrants to include hate crimes defined under § 485.05 of the state's Penal Law.

The report described video surveillance and eavesdropping as among the most powerful tools out there to disrupt criminal activity. They can be used to gather evidence of a crime during the preliminary stages and allow plots to be disrupted, according to the report.

"Eavesdropping and video surveillance authority could, if approved by a court in an appropriate case, enable law enforcement to infiltrate and disrupt these heinous crimes during the planning stages before great harm occurs," the report says.

The report noted that wiretaps generally can be initiated for offenses that underlie a hate crime, but the document said adding hate crimes to the list of designated offenses would fill the gap. 

"Why not define a hate crime as one which is eligible for eavesdropping? [It] makes more sense than to try to juggle the preexisting crime to fit the eavesdropping statute," said Scott Karson, the association's president, in an interview Monday.

The task force report passed the association's House of Delegates on June 27, he said.

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