Saturday, August 12 marks 10 years since the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy was ruled unconstitutional. The practice was a hallmark of policing in New York during Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration and hit its apex under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his police commissioner, Ray Kelly.
But in an Aug. 12, 2013, opinion, District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that stop and frisk, as applied by the city, was “racially discriminatory” and unlawfully singled out Black and Hispanic men.
Now Scheindlin, retired from the bench and currently with the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, worries the police tactic is making a comeback.
She joined “All Things Considered” host Tiffany Hanssen to discuss her landmark ruling. Their conversation was lightly edited for length and clarity.
Hanssen: I just want to remind listeners exactly what was happening 10 years ago. Before we talk about the ruling, just paint a picture of what was happening at the time in terms of stop and frisk in the NYPD.
SCHEINDLIN: Yes, at that time, there were hundreds of thousands of stops per year. I believe the highest year was about 660,000 stops in one year. The police department would stop people without what I believe is reasonable suspicion to do so, and not only would they stop them, but they would often frisk them. What happened was these stops were essentially drilling in a dry well.
The stops did not produce drugs, did not produce guns, did not produce evidence of crimes. It was just an intrusion into people’s freedom to walk about without being harassed by police. Most of these stops resulted in nothing – 88%, I believe, was the figure. The remainder had some follow-up, often for very minor offenses. Maybe somebody who was stopped had a warrant or hadn’t paid some fines or whatever.
So it was not a very effective policy. In any event, a class action lawsuit was brought. It took years to get it tried, and there was a trial before me and then there was a decision. It was a…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply