GPS DEVICES AND STALKING:
One measure adds the unauthorized tracking by GPS or any other electronic device to the definition of illegal following in the state’s fourth-degree stalking statute. This means situations which were not previously technically illegal can now be classified as stalking, and prosecuted accordingly.
AGGRAVATED HARASSMENT:
Another measure clarified the second-degree harassment statute. The words in the previous statute, outlawing communication “in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm” were removed and replaced with stricter, more specific phrases. The statute now applies to situations where a guilty party “knows or reasonably should know” that a certain contact will cause another person to “reasonably fear harm to such person’s physical safety or property, or to the physical safety or property of a member of such person's same family or household." This, once again, means that situations which may not have previously been considered harassment, can now be classified as such.
PUBLIC LEWDNESS:
The last measure Cuomo has enacted classifies Public Lewdness (or Indecent Exposure) in the First Degree as a class A misdemeanor. This applies to offenders age 19 and up who intentionally expose themselves to children under the age of 16. Exposing oneself to a minor is now punishable by up to one year in county jail.