Judge rules against NY’s ‘stop and frisk’ policy

New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly (right) speaks at a press conference with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk practice yesterday. A federal court judge ruled that Stop-and-Frisk violates rights guaranteed to people and the Bloomberg administration has vowed to appeal the case.

Reuters/New York

A US judge ruled yesterday the New York Police Department’s “stop-and-frisk” crime-fighting tactic unconstitutional, dealing a stinging rebuke to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who vowed to appeal the ruling.

US District Judge Shira Scheindlin called it “indirect racial profiling” because it targeted racially defined groups, resulting in the disproportionate and discriminatory stopping of tens of thousands of blacks and Hispanics while the city highest officials “turned a blind eye,” she said.

“No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life,” Scheindlin wrote in her opinion.

But Bloomberg stood his ground. “People also have a right to walk down the street without being killed or mugged,” he said at a news conference, repeating his conviction that the program resulted in a drastic reduction in crime that made New York the “poster child” for safe US cities.

As part of her ruling, Scheindlin ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and other immediate changes to police policies. Her “remedies” address two lawsuits, one brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the other by the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“Today is a victory for all New Yorkers,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement. “After more than 5mn stops conducted under the current administration, hundreds of thousands of them illegal and discriminatory, the NYPD has finally been held accountable. It is time for the city to stop denying the problem and work with the community to fix it.”

Bloomberg told reporters his administration will appeal her ruling. That will take place as soon as the monitor makes any kind of request, at which time the city will seek an immediate stay pending the outcome of the appeal, said Corp Council Michael Cardozo.

Bloomberg has resisted interference in his police policies, especially that of stopping, questioning and frisking anyone for “reasonable suspicion” in high-crime areas.

The mayor has sought to preserve a legacy that includes a 30% reduction in violent crime since 2001, the year he was first elected. Bloomberg will leave office on Jan. 1 after 12 years in office.

The judge, who presided over the nine-week trial without a jury, ruled the effectiveness of “stop and frisk” was irrelevant.

“Many police practices may be useful for fighting crime -preventive detention or coerced confessions, for example - but because they are unconstitutional, they cannot be used, no matter how effective,” the ruling said.

Police officers felt pressure to increase the number of stops after Bloomberg took office in January 2002 and brought in Raymond Kelly to be NYPD commissioner, the judge wrote.

As a result, officers often frisked young minority men for weapons or searched their pockets for contraband before letting them go, in a violation of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, the judge said in her 195-page decision.

The number of stops rose to 685,724 in 2011 from 160,851 in 2003, with about half resulting in physical searches, a 2012 report by the New York Civil Liberties Union showed.