How You Can Help Hold the NYPD Accountable When Officers Abuse Protesters 

In 2020, tens of thousands of New Yorkers rose from COVID lockdown to protest the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police – and the racist systems that allow similar killings to occur with chilling regularity. Instead of protecting their right to assemble and speak out against this deadly injustice, the NYPD met demonstrators with the very brutality that they were protesting.

Across the five boroughs, officers deployed violent tools and tactics. They beat protestors with batons, indiscriminately doused them in pepper spray, and used “kettling,” in which police trap protestors in an enclosed space before arresting them. The NYPD also targeted journalists and legal observers. All told, officers arrested more than 2,000 demonstrators, most of them peaceful.

A number of the officers involved in these acts were part of the Department’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), a unit with a long history of brutalizing New Yorkers exercising their First Amendment rights.

A Landmark Settlement Requires Long-Overdue Changes

The NYPD’s brutal tactics during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests injured many protestors and sparked lawsuits against the Department and the City.

In September 2023, the NYCLU, New York Attorney General Letitia James, The Legal Aid Society, and private attorneys announced a landmark agreement with the NYPD, requiring the Department to change how it deploys officers to public demonstrations. It sets up a tiered system that dictates when, how many, and which kind of officers can respond and is designed to minimize police presence at protests. It also requires the NYPD to use de-escalation methods before ratcheting up its response.

Under this system, the Department can only deploy the SRG at higher tiers, when there is evidence of risks of unlawful conduct such as property damage or violence. The agreement also bans the use of kettling.

In addition, the settlement requires the plaintiff organizations to hire a community engagement expert to work with “affected communities including grassroots organizations, legal organizations, press organizations and legal observers.” The job of the community engagement expert is to organize “regular efforts to solicit feedback and input” including “community meetings, roundtables, and engagement efforts.” To fulfill these requirements, the Protest Testimony Project was formed.

The judge approved the settlement in 2024, and, after overcoming a challenge from the NYPD’s largest union, on-the-ground changes to police protocol began in October 2025.

Because the NYPD has proven time and again that it cannot police itself, opportunities for people to offer firsthand testimony are vital in tracking whether police are adhering to the agreement.

How Does the Protest Testimony Project Hold the NYPD Accountable?

The Protest Testimony Project gives the public the opportunity to learn about the settlement and the NYPD’s obligations under it. The Project also collects on-the-ground feedback from New Yorkers on what they are seeing from NYPD officers.

Last April, the NYCLU and its partners announced the hiring of Obi Afriyie as Community Engagement Expert. Afriyie describes himself as a “lifelong New Yorker and community organizer.” Afriyie was previously a community organizer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

To hold the NYPD to the promises made in the settlement, the oversight committee monitoring the Department’s implementation of the settlement needs to hear from the public, journalists, and others about the NYPD’s response to protest and how it deploys officers to demonstrations. Public feedback helps hold the NYPD accountable and can surface patterns so that the oversight committee can identify and address these gaps.

But simply asking for public feedback isn’t enough. People need educational opportunities to help them understand what to look out for at demonstrations. The PTP fulfills this mission by holding roundtable workshops that explain – in plain language – the history of the settlement and the changes the NYPD must make in its policing of protests.

Roundtables also offer participants a safe and structured space to share what they have experienced at protests.

“The roundtables are designed to be safe spaces for open-ended discussion, shared experiences, and information gathering. We don’t collect names or identifying information, and participants can engage anonymously. These spaces also allow people to connect with us for support without fear of being exposed,” Afriyie said.

By participating in the PTP and learning about the settlement or sharing their feedback, people can take part in the critical public oversight of an agreement that could set a gold standard for protest policing nationwide.

“Our First Amendment protections are vital to advocacy and to our ongoing pursuit of true equality,” Afriyie said. “Education and community-building are our strongest forms of protection. When we come together, see each other, and recognize our shared experiences, we become stronger as a collective — and that’s how real change is built.”