Federal monitor Mylan Dernstein said only 41% of stops, 32% of frisks and 26% of searches were lawful. File (Representational image) | Photo Credit: AP
Dependency on a device known as the Dependency of New York City “stop and frisk” A court-appointed federal monitor reported on June 5 that gun violence is harming communities of color and violating the law, as part of a new initiative to combat gun violence.
Monitor Mylan Dernstein said the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Neighborhood Safety Teams — specialized units deployed over the past 14 months to confiscate guns in high-crime areas — were “unconstitutional” by stopping and searching too many people without justification. Policing”. ,
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On one police precinct, Ms. Dennerstein said only 41% of stops, 32% of frisks and 26% of searches were lawful.
Neighborhood Safety Teams, a replacement for the Anti-Crime Units disbanded by the NYPD in 2021, operate in 34 precincts that account for 80% of the city’s violent crime, primarily in communities of color. Of the people stopped by the teams, 97% are black or Hispanic, Ms. Dennerstein said.
A spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams said city officials had “serious concerns” with Ms. Dienerstein’s practices and that they only became aware of her findings after news outlets reported them. Spokesman Fabian Levy said shootings have decreased since the creation of the Neighborhood Safety Team.
“The officers assigned to the units have increased training and oversight to ensure that we are not only keeping New Yorkers safe, but also protecting their civil liberties,” Mr. Levy said. is unacceptable, and we will strive to make every day better for New Yorkers”.
Ms. Dennerstein said she began her review when Mr. Adams announced in March 2022 that the NYPD was deploying Neighborhood Safety Teams to some campuses to deal with gun violence. Team members, wearing modified uniforms and driving unmarked cars, have the privilege of stopping, searching, and searching their assigned neighborhoods.
“Unfortunately, the results are disappointing,” Ms. Dennerstein wrote. Despite their training and experience, officers assigned to Neighborhood Safety Teams “appear to have an overall unsatisfactory level of compliance with stops, searches, and frisking of individuals. Many people are stopped, searched and searched illegally. 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 seeks to remove guns and drugs from the street by repeatedly stopping and searching people on the street. It was part of the effort.
In 2013, a federal judge ruled that the NYPD had violated the civil rights of black and Hispanic New Yorkers with stop and frisk. In addition, US District Judge Sheira Sheindlin ruled that the stops were a form of indirect racial profiling.
Since the ruling, the department claimed a sharp decline in stops, reporting an average of about 11,730 per year from 2016 to 2022, compared to a high of about 686,000 stops in 2011. According to NYPD data compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union, the vast majority of stops in 2022, accounting for 89% of all stops.