Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
NYPD officers
NYPD officers in 2011 recorded 684,300 stop-and-frisks, but an NYPD spokesman insisted the policy protected minorites. Photograph: Monika Graff/Getty Images
NYPD officers in 2011 recorded 684,300 stop-and-frisks, but an NYPD spokesman insisted the policy protected minorites. Photograph: Monika Graff/Getty Images

NYPD facing court challenge over controversial stop-and-frisk tactics

This article is more than 11 years old
Federal lawsuit passes key legal hurdles and looks set to throw focus on NYPD policy that critics say amounts to racial profiling

The New York City police department will be forced to defend in court its controversial practice of stopping and questioning hundreds of thousands black and Latino citizens every year against accusations that it amounts to an unconstitutional system of racial profiling.

A federal lawsuit filed by four men who found themselves on the receiving end of the department's so-called stop-and-frisk policy has passed key legal hurdles, and a decision is now awaited on whether the case should be ruled as a class action.

The resulting trial would throw a spotlight on a policy that the city's police commissioner, Ray Kelly, once described as "dubious", and which critics say has resulted in a culture of fear in New York's minority populations.

One New York state senator, Eric Adams, alleges Kelly even told him in 2010 he wanted to "instil the fear in black and Hispanic youth that every time they leave their homes they will feel that they could be stopped".

The number of reported encounters has soared under Kelly and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. In 2002, NYPD officers recorded 97,296 stop-and-frisks. Nine years later, that figure increased to a record-breaking total of 684,300.

Every year the vast majority of those stopped – generally 85% or more – have been African Americans or Latinos, and about nine out of 10 were released without a charge or a summons. The NYPD says the stop-and-frisk policy has reduced crime; this is disputed by its critics, who say it has increased racial tensions in the city. In one of her rulings, the judge in the federal case said the links are "not clear".

The suit was filed in January 2008. In it, David Floyd and Lalit Clarkson accused the NYPD, Kelly, Bloomberg, several named and unnamed police officers and the city itself of maintaining an unconstitutional racial profiling system through stop-and-frisks. Two other men later joined the action.

After years of legal red tape and a concerted effort on the part of city lawyers to shut it down, it appears the men will have their day in court. In August, US district judge Shira Scheindlin refused to dismiss their complaint, overriding objections from the city. And last month Scheindlin ruled that the testimony of a Columbia University criminologist, Jeffrey Fagan, would be admitted in the case. After examining NYPD data cataloging 2.8m police stops between 2004 and 2009, Fagan determined that police made 150,000 unconstitutional or legally unjustified stops.

Scheindlin must now determine whether to certify the lawsuit as a class action. Barring a successful appeal by the city, a court date would then be set.

Gideon Oliver, president of the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, believes Judge Scheindlin can and should certify the suit as a class action, saying it would be the most efficient way of dealing with the case. "I think the stop and frisk practices and problems are so pervasive that it's exactly the kind of issue that should be resolved and can be resolved through a class action rather than thousands of individual suits," Oliver said.

"I think it's very likely that Judge Scheindlin will certify the class, especially since she's recently ruled that Fagan's report can go in, pointing up that it's a policy that discriminates against people of color, especially in New York. It goes to the heart of the case."

Kelly once described stop-and-frisks as a "dubious practice" that "sowed new seeds of community mistrust". But now he vigorously defends the policy, arguing that stop-and-frisks have led to a decline in murders. With the support of Bloomberg, Kelly has contended that racial disparities in stop-and-frisk figures correspond to racial differences in crime suspects.

NYPD Chief Ray Kelly Holds News Conference Announcing Gun Trafficking Ring Bust
NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly says stop-and-frisks have led to a decline in murders. Photograph: Getty

In her 86-page decision, Judge Scheindlin raised concerns about the connection between stop-and-frisks and the decline in crime in New York City since the mid-1990s, writing the links "are not clear", but adding: "It is clear that the policing policies that the city has implemented over the past decade and half have led to a dramatic increase in the number of pedestrian stops, to the point of now reaching almost 600,000 a year."

Scheindlin described stop-and-frisks as "a sufficiently unwelcome intrusion" and wrote: "The increasingly widespread use of this policing tool in New York City is not to be taken lightly, even in those cases in which the individuals are not detained for more than a few minutes, and even if the practice causes some reduction in the city's crime rate.

"It is deeply troubling if thousands of New Yorkers are being stopped each year without reasonable suspicion, and even more troubling if African American and Latino New Yorkers are being singled out for such treatment."

In her latest ruling last month, Sheindlin ruled that Fagan's criminology testimony would be admitted in the case. As well as noting the number of illegal stops, his report challenged the assertion that stop-and-frisks are an effective gun deterrent, noting the rate of gun seizures resulting from reported stops is nearly zero, at just 0.15 out of 100 stops.

Fagan concluded: "Black and Latino people are more likely to be stopped than white people, even in areas where there are low crime rates and where residential populations are racially heterogeneous or predominantly white."

In her decision, Judge Scheindlin pointed to a sworn affidavit from Adams, formerly an NYPD officer of 22 years, alleging that Kelly relies on stop-and-frisks to serve as a psychological tool applied specifically to black and Latino communities.

Adams told the Guardian that the commissioner made the comment during a 2010 meeting challenging the department's use of a stop-and-frisk database. "Kelly, in defence of the database, said several things – but one of them stood out more than the rest."

According to Adams, Kelly said: "He wanted to instil the fear in black and Hispanic youths that every time they leave their homes they will feel that they could be stopped and searched by the police."

Lalit Clarkson, a plaintiff in the Floyd suit, said the commissioner's apparent aim has come to pass. "The atmosphere in the community I grew up in is like: 'You see police, you walk away'," Clarkson told the Guardian. He says police stops are fact of life in the city's African American and Latino neighborhoods, resulting in a "culture of fear".

"I am not the only person," Clarkson said. "This is a practice that happens to me, my family members and people that I know and love, and it's something that should be stopped."

'Policy protects minorities'

Paul Browne, the NYPD's chief spokemsan, said the stop-and-frisk policy protected minorities. In a statement issued to the Guardian, he said: "Police stops comport with descriptions provided by crime victims. Last year, 96% of all shooting victims in New York City were black or Hispanic, as were their assailants. Over 90% of murder victims last year were black or Hispanic, as were their killers."

He said police stops have helped bring the crime rate down. "In the first 10 years of the Bloomberg administration, there were 6,430 murders compared to 11,058 in the 10 years prior, a reduction of 51% – or 5,628 lives saved. And if history is a guide, the vast majority of those lives saved were young men of color."

March against the NYPD's notorious stop-and-frisk policy
March against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy. Led by comunity leaders, religious figures, and Princeton University professor and activist Cornel West Photograph: Scott Houston/Corbis

Community activists have increasingly pushed back against the stop-and-frisk policy with public acts of civil disobedience. In October, a group calling itself the Stop Mass Incarceration Network launched a series of actions throughout the city with the support of Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Clarkson says the legal troubles that result from stop-and-frisks create hurdles to employment and foster a sense of collective powerlessness. "People don't feel like there's any accountability when the police violate their rights," he said.

Clarkson believes the policy has particularly tragic consequences for young people. "Kids of 11, 12, 13 years old are getting stopped by the police just for walking. Just for doing things that kids do," he said. "What does that do to an 11- or 12-year-old kid who gets stopped and gets told the reason why guns are being drawn in his face is because he's wearing gang colors and he's just wearing a black-and-yellow jacket and has no gang affiliation?"

State senator Adams believes a shift to numbers-driven policing has resulted in the widespread abuse of an otherwise useful tactic.

"The policy of stop-and-frisk is a good policy. I've used it," Adams said. "It's the abuse of it. When you tell officers to go out and use stop-and-frisk as some form of quota, that you will bring in a predetermined number of stop-and-frisks, now the officers are no longer looking for the underlying elements that cause them to stop and frisk people. They're now just looking to fill the quota and so they stop innocent people."

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed