New York City's reliance on the tactic known as “stop and frisk" as part of a new initiative to combat gun violence is harming communities of colour and running afoul of the law, a court-appointed Federal Monitor reported on June 5.
Monitor Mylan Denerstein said the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD’s) Neighbourhood Safety Teams — special units deployed in the past 14 months to seize guns in high-crime areas — were engaging in “unconstitutional policing” by stopping and frisking too many people without justification.
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In one police precinct, Ms. Denerstein said that only 41% of stops, 32% of frisks and 26% of searches were lawful.
The Neighbourhood Safety Teams, a replacement for the anti-crime units that the NYPD disbanded in 2021, operate in 34 areas that account for 80% of the city's violent crime, largely in communities of colour. Of the people the teams have stopped, 97% are Black or Hispanic, Ms. Denerstein said.
A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said city officials “have serious concerns” with Ms. Denerstein's methodology and that they only learned of her findings after news outlets reported on them. The spokesperson, Fabien Levy reported that shootings have fallen since the Neighbourhood Safety Teams were created.
Officers assigned to the units “have enhanced training and oversight to ensure we are not only keeping New Yorkers safe, but also protecting their civil liberties,” Mr. Levy said, adding that “any unconstitutional stop is unacceptable, and we will strive to do better for New Yorkers every day”.
Ms. Denerstein said she began her review after Mr. Adams announced in March 2022 that the NYPD was deploying Neighbourhood Safety Teams in some precincts to combat gun violence. The Team members, wearing modified uniforms and driving unmarked cars, have the prerogative to conduct stops, frisks and searches in their assigned neighbourhoods.
“Unfortunately, the results are disappointing,” Ms. Denerstein wrote. Despite their training and experience, officers assigned to Neighbourhood Safety Teams “overall appear to be stopping, frisking, and searching individuals at an unsatisfactory level of compliance. Too many people are stopped, frisked, and searched unlawfully”. In 2013, a Federal judge ruled that the NYPD had violated the civil rights of Black and Hispanic New Yorkers with stop and frisk, which was part of an effort to get guns and drugs off the street by frequently stopping and searching people on the street.
In 2013, a Federal Judge ruled that the NYPD had violated the civil rights of Black and Hispanic New Yorkers with stops and frisks. Moreover, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled the stops were a form of indirect racial profiling.
Since the ruling, the Department claimed a sharp drop in stops, reporting an average of around 11,730 per year from 2016 to 2022, compared with a high of nearly 6,86,000 stops in 2011. Black and Hispanic people continue to be the targets of the vast majority of stops, accounting for 89% of all stops in 2022, according to NYPD data compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union.
