N.Y. Const. art. XIII, § 13: Law enforcement and other officers

§ 13. (a) Except in counties in the city of New York and except as

authorized in section one of article nine of this constitution,

registers in counties having registers shall be chosen by the electors

of the respective counties once in every three years and whenever the

occurring of vacancies shall require; the sheriff and the clerk of each

county shall be chosen by the electors once in every three or four years

as the legislature shall direct. Sheriffs shall hold no other office.

They may be required by law to renew their security, from time to time;

and in default of giving such new security, their offices shall be

deemed vacant. The governor may remove any elective sheriff, county

clerk, district attorney or register within the term for which he or she

shall have been elected; but before so doing the governor shall give to

such officer a copy of the charges against him or her and an opportunity

of being heard in his or her defense. In each county a district attorney

shall be chosen by the electors once in every three or four years as the

legislature shall direct. The clerk of each county in the city of New

York shall be appointed, and be subject to removal, by the appellate

division of the supreme court in the judicial department in which the

county is located. In addition to his or her powers and duties as clerk

of the supreme court, he or she shall have power to select, draw, summon

and empanel grand and petit jurors in the manner and under the

conditions now or hereafter prescribed by law, and shall have such other

powers and duties as shall be prescribed by the city from time to time

by local law.

(b) Any district attorney who shall fail faithfully to prosecute a

person charged with the violation in his or her county of any provision

of this article which may come to his or her knowledge, shall be removed

from office by the governor, after due notice and an opportunity of

being heard in his or her defense. The expenses which shall be incurred

by any county, in investigating and prosecuting any charge of bribery or

attempting to bribe any person holding office under the laws of this

state, within such county, or of receiving bribes by any such person in

said county, shall be a charge against the state, and their payment by

the state shall be provided for by law.

(c) The city of New York is hereby vested with power from time to time

to abolish by local law, as defined by the legislature, the office of

any county officer within the city other than judges, clerks of counties

and district attorneys, and to assign any or all functions of such

officers to city officers, courts or clerks of counties, and to

prescribe the powers, duties, qualifications, number, mode of selection

and removal, terms of office and compensation of the persons holding

such offices and the employees therein, and to assign to city officers

any powers or duties of clerks of counties not assigned by this

constitution. The legislature shall not pass any law affecting any such

matters in relation to such offices within the city of New York except

on message from the governor declaring that an emergency exists and the

concurrent action of two-thirds of the members of each house, except

that existing laws regarding each such office shall continue in force,

and may be amended or repealed by the legislature as heretofore, until

the power herein granted to the city has been exercised with respect to

that office. The provisions of article nine shall not prevent the

legislature from passing general or special laws prescribing or

affecting powers and duties of such city officers or such courts or

clerks to whom or which functions of such county officers shall have

been so assigned, in so far as such powers or duties embrace subjects

not relating to property, affairs or government of such city.