Police

Report: NYPD's Anti-Crime Units Making Illegal Stops, Frisks

JUN 6 2023·Updated JUN 7 2023

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The Facts

According to a report released by a court-appointed monitor on Monday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) is still stopping, frisking, and searching in large numbers, despite its stop-and-frisk policy being declared unconstitutional a decade ago.
The Washington Post
Federal monitor Mylan Denerstein has claimed that the NYPD's Neighborhood Safety Teams (NSTs) are unjustifiably targeting people of color and running afoul of the law in efforts to combat gun violence in high-crime areas.
The Associated Press
In her report filed in Manhattan Federal Court, Denerstein stated that 24% of the 184 encounters made by the NSTs in the second quarter of 2022 were unlawful and had no reasonable cause.
New York Post
Additionally, her report found that about 97% of all stops made by the NSTs — revamped versions of the anti-crime units disbanded by the NYPD in 2020 — were against Black or Hispanic people.
nytimes
In 2013, a federal judge ruled that the NYPD had violated the civil rights of Black and Hispanic New Yorkers with its stop-and-frisk policy, reportedly aimed at getting guns and drugs off the streets.
The Hindu
Though the Department claims stops have dropped sharply since the ruling, the New York Civil Liberties Union alleges Black and Hispanic Americans still accounted for 89% of all stops in 2022.
NBC

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The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

This scathing report only confirms what Black and Hispanic New Yorkers have been saying all along — people of color are policed differently to their white counterparts and are disproportionately targeted by stop-and-frisk. This news also raises the question of why the NYPD still engages in unconstitutional policing and indirect racial profiling, despite assurances from Mayor Eric Adams that new policies and training would end such abusive practices.

Intelligencer

Pro-establishment narrative

NSTs have been instrumental in bringing the number of shootings, gun violence-related crimes, and homicides down. The latest statistics show that the NYPD has dealt a blow to low-level crimes and violations, and prevented more serious crimes from taking place. The NSTs protect New Yorkers’ physical safety and have effectively kept interactions with the public lawful — the methodology and findings of Denerstein's audit should face significant scrutiny.