Article 270: Other offenses relating to public safety

In New York law, Article 270 refers to other offenses relating to public safety. If you have been charged with such an offense, you should contact a criminal defense attorney immediately.

The complete law is as follows:

Article 270: Other offenses relating to public safety

270.00 Unlawfully dealing with fireworks and dangerous fireworks.
270.05 Unlawfully possessing or selling noxious material.
270.10 Creating a hazard.
270.15 Unlawfully refusing to yield a party line.
270.20 Unlawful wearing of a body vest.
270.25 Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree.
270.30 Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the second degree.
270.35 Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the first degree.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.00

Unlawfully dealing with fireworks and dangerous fireworks.

1. Definition of “fireworks” and “dangerous fireworks”. The term “fireworks,” as used in this section, is defined and declared to be and to include any blank cartridge, blank cartridge pistol, or toy cannon in which explosives are used, firecrackers, sparklers or other combustible or explosive of like construction, or any preparation containing any explosive or inflammable compound or any tablets or other device commonly used and sold as fireworks containing nitrates, chlorates, oxalates, sulphides of lead, barium, antimony, arsenic, mercury, nitroglycerine, phosphorus or any compound containing any of the same or other explosives, or any substance or combination of substances, or article prepared for the purpose of producing a visible or an audible effect by combustion, explosion, deflagration or detonation, or other device containing any explosive substance and the term “dangerous fireworks” means any fireworks capable of causing serious physical injury and which are: firecrackers containing more than fifty milligrams of any explosive substance, torpedoes, skyrockets and rockets including all devices which employ any combustible or explosive substance and which rise in the air during discharge, Roman candles, bombs, sparklers more than ten inches in length or one-fourth of one inch in diameter, or chasers including all devices which dart or travel about the surface of the ground during discharge. “Fireworks” and “dangerous fireworks” shall not be deemed to include (1) flares of the type used by railroads or any warning lights commonly known as red flares, or marine distress signals of a type approved by the United States coast guard or (2) toy pistols, toy canes, toy guns or other devices in which paper caps containing twenty-five hundredths grains or less of explosive compound are used, providing they are so constructed that the hand cannot come in contact with the cap when in place for use, and toy pistol paper caps which contain less than twenty-hundredths grains of explosive mixture, the sale and use of which shall be permitted at all times, or (3) bank security devices which contain not more than fifty grams of any compound or substance or any combination thereof, together with an igniter not exceeding 0.2 gram, capable of producing a lachrymating and/or visible or audible effect, where such device is stored or used only by banks, national banking associations, trust companies, savings banks, savings and loan associations, industrial banks, or credit unions, or by any manufacturer, wholesaler, dealer, jobber or common carrier for such devices and where the total storage on any one premises does not exceed one hundred devices.

2. Offense.

(a) Except as herein otherwise provided, or except where a permit is obtained pursuant to section 405.00;

(i) any person who shall offer or expose for sale, sell or furnish, any fireworks or dangerous fireworks is guilty of a class B misdemeanor;

(ii) any person who shall offer or expose for sale, sell or furnish any fireworks or dangerous fireworks valued at five hundred dollars or more shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor;

(b)

(i) Except as herein otherwise stated, or except where a permit is obtained pursuant to section 405.00, any person who shall possess, use, explode or cause to explode any fireworks or dangerous fireworks is guilty of a violation.

(ii) A person who shall offer or expose for sale, sell or furnish, any dangerous fireworks to any person who is under the age of eighteen is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

(iii) A person who has previously been convicted of a violation of subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph within the preceding five years and who shall offer or expose for sale, sell or furnish, any dangerous fireworks to any person who is under the age of eighteen, shall be guilty of a class E felony.

(c) Possession of fireworks or dangerous fireworks valued at fifty dollars or more shall be a presumption that such fireworks were intended to be offered or exposed for sale.

3. The provisions of this section shall not apply to articles of the kind and nature herein mentioned, while in possession of railroads and transportation agencies for the purpose of transportation to points without the state, the shipment of which is not prohibited by the interstate commerce commission regulations as formulated and published from time to time, unless the same be held voluntarily by such railroads or transportation companies as warehousemen for delivery to points within the state; provided, that none of the provisions of this section shall apply to signaling devices used by railroad companies or motor vehicles referred to in subdivision seventeen of section three hundred seventy-five of the vehicle and traffic law, or to high explosives for blasting or similar purposes; provided that none of the provisions of this section shall apply to fireworks or dangerous fireworks and the use thereof by the army and navy departments of the state and federal government; nor shall anything in this act contained be construed to prohibit any manufacturer, wholesaler, dealer or jobber from manufacturing, possessing or selling at wholesale such fireworks or dangerous fireworks to municipalities, religious or civic organizations, fair associations, amusement parks, or other organizations or groups of individuals authorized to possess and use fireworks or dangerous fireworks under this act, or the sale or use of blank cartridges for a show or theatre, or for signal purposes in athletic sports, or for dog trials or dog training, or the use, or the storage, transportation or sale for use of fireworks or dangerous fireworks in the preparation for or in connection with television broadcasts; nor shall anything in this act contained be construed to prohibit the manufacture of fireworks or dangerous fireworks, nor the sale of any kind of fireworks or dangerous fireworks, provided the same are to be shipped directly out of the state.

4. Sales of ammunition not prohibited. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prevent, or interfere in any way with, the sale of ammunition for revolvers or pistols of any kind, or for rifles, shot guns, or other arms, belonging or which may belong to any persons whether as sporting or hunting weapons or for the purpose of protection to them in their homes, or, as they may go abroad; and manufacturers are authorized to continue to manufacture, and wholesalers and dealers to continue to deal in and freely to sell ammunition to all such persons for such purposes.

5. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision four of this section, it shall be unlawful for any dealer in firearms to sell any ammunition designed exclusively for use in a pistol or revolver to any person, not authorized to possess a pistol or revolver. The violation of this section shall constitute a class B misdemeanor.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.05

Unlawfully possessing or selling noxious material.

1. As used in this section, “noxious material” means any container which contains any drug or other substance capable of generating offensive, noxious or suffocating fumes, gases or vapors, or capable of immobilizing a person.

2. A person is guilty of unlawfully possessing noxious material when he possesses such material under circumstances evincing an intent to use it or to cause it to be used to inflict physical injury upon or to cause annoyance to a person, or to damage property of another, or to disturb the public peace.

3. Possession of noxious material is presumptive evidence of intent to use it or cause it to be used in violation of this section.

4. Bank security devices not prohibited. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this section, it shall not be unlawful for any bank, national banking association, trust company, savings bank, savings and loan association, industrial bank, or credit union to store, possess, transport, use or cause to discharge any bank security device as described in subdivision one of section 270.00 of this chapter; nor shall it be unlawful for any manufacturer, wholesaler, dealer, jobber or common carrier to manufacture, store, possess, transport, or sell such a device to banks, national banking associations, trust companies, savings banks, savings and loan associations, industrial banks or credit unions.

5. Self-defense spray devices not prohibited. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivisions two and three of this section, it shall not be unlawful for a person eighteen years of age or older to possess a self-defense spray device as defined in paragraph fourteen of subdivision a of section 265.20 of this chapter in accordance with the provisions set forth therein.

6. A person is guilty of unlawfully selling a noxious material when he or she sells a self-defense spray device as defined in paragraph fourteen of subdivision a of section 265.20 of this chapter and such sale was not authorized in accordance with the provisions of paragraph fifteen of subdivision a of section 265.20 of this chapter.

Unlawfully possessing or selling noxious material is a class B misdemeanor.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.10

Creating a hazard.

A person is guilty of creating a hazard when: 1. Having discarded in any place where it might attract children, a container which has a compartment of more than one and one-half cubic feet capacity and a door or lid which locks or fastens automatically when closed and which cannot easily be opened from the inside, he fails to remove the door, lid, locking or fastening device; or 2. Being the owner or otherwise having possession of property upon which an abandoned well or cesspool is located, he fails to cover the same with suitable protective construction.

Creating a hazard is a class B misdemeanor.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.15

Unlawfully refusing to yield a party line.

1. As used in this section:

(a) “Party line” means a subscriber`s line telephone circuit, consisting of two or more main telephone stations connected therewith, each station with a distinctive ring or telephone number.

(b) “Emergency call” means a telephone call to a police or fire department, or for medical aid or ambulance service, necessitated by a situation in which human life or property is in jeopardy and prompt summoning of aid is essential.

2. A person is guilty of unlawfully refusing to yield a party line when, being informed that a party line is needed for an emergency call, he refuses immediately to relinquish such line.

Unlawfully refusing to yield a party line is a class B misdemeanor.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.20

Unlawful wearing of a body vest.

1. A person is guilty of the unlawful wearing of a body vest when acting either alone or with one or more other persons he commits any violent felony offense defined in section 70.02 while possessing a firearm, rifle or shotgun and in the course of and in furtherance of such crime he wears a body vest.

2. For the purposes of this section a “body vest” means a bullet-resistant soft body armor providing, as a minimum standard, the level of protection known as threat level I which shall mean at least seven layers of bullet-resistant material providing protection from three shots of one hundred fifty-eight grain lead ammunition fired from a .38 caliber handgun at a velocity of eight hundred fifty feet per second.

The unlawful wearing of a body vest is a class E felony.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.25

Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree.

A person is guilty of unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree when, knowing that he or she has been directed to stop his or her motor vehicle by a uniformed police officer or a marked police vehicle by the activation of either the lights or the lights and siren of such vehicle, he or she thereafter attempts to flee such officer or such vehicle by driving at speeds which equal or exceed twenty-five miles per hour above the speed limit or engaging in reckless driving as defined by section twelve hundred twelve of the vehicle and traffic law.

Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree is a class A misdemeanor.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.30

Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the second degree.

A person is guilty of unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the second degree when he or she commits the offense of unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree, as defined in section 270.25 of this article, and as a result of such conduct a police officer or a third person suffers serious physical injury.

Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the second degree is a class E felony.


NY PENAL LAW § 270.35

Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the first degree.

A person is guilty of unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the first degree when he or she commits the offense of unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree, as defined in section 270.25 of this article, and as a result of such conduct a police officer or a third person is killed.

Unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the first degree is a class D felony.