Decision Moves City One Step Closer to Stop-and-Frisk Reform

Exactly six months after Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement that New York City intended to drop its appeal in two class-action lawsuits challenging the NYPD’s unconstitutional and discriminatory stop-and-frisk regime, a federal court judge cleared the path for the parties to resolve these longstanding lawsuits and work together to develop remedies that will finally end stop-and-frisk abuses. The court also denied police unions’ requests that they join the cases which could have slowed the reform process.

“Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised New Yorkers that he will end the legal battle over stop-and-frisk and reform the NYPD so it can become a force that all communities trust and respect. Today’s decision clears the way for him to immediately make good on the promise to drop the city’s appeals,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “But it comes at a moment when NYPD policing practices are in the spotlight for different reasons. We hope the city will use today’s decision as an opportunity to ensure that the NYPD is always respectful of the communities that rely on them for protection. New York City can and must be a place where the police protect both safety and individual rights.”

The decision, from federal court Judge Analisa Torres, is in two companion pieces of civil rights litigation: the Center for Constitutional Rights’ landmark case Floyd v. City of New York, which found New York liable for a decade-long pattern of discriminatory and unconstitutional street stops, and the NYCLU’s Ligon v. City of New York.

Ligon, filed with The Bronx Defenders, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and Shearman & Sterling LLP, challenged police abuse as part of the NYPD’s enforcement of Operation Clean Halls, a citywide program within the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk operation that allows police officers to patrol in and around certain private apartment buildings.

“We hope this decision marks the end of obstructionist tactics by the police unions and the beginning of real reform of stop-and-frisk,” said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, lead counsel in Ligon. “It’s time to move past lawsuits to a new era of policing in New York City.”

The next step to resolve the lawsuits is for New York City to promptly request that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismiss its appeals in the cases. Once that happens, the process of reforming stop-and-frisk practices under the supervision of a federal monitor can begin. That process will include substantial community input and will address policies, protocols, training and supervision.

“After more than 5 million street stops and thousands in and around apartment buildings enrolled in Operation Clean Halls, New Yorkers can’t afford to wait another day for the reform process to begin,” said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Alexis Karteron. “We hope the administration recognizes this and immediately seeks permission to drop the city’s stop-and-frisk appeals.”