Judge finds stop-and-frisk policy violates rights
Seeks to reform the practice
In the federal case challenging the controversial New York Police Department policy to stop individuals, generally without probable cause, and frisk them for contraband, Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin on ruled on Monday that the policy violates civil rights.
She also has ruled that an independent monitor is required to reform the policy and named Peter L. Zimroth, the city’s former lead attorney and previously a chief assistant district attorney, as the monitor.
“The city’s highest officials have turned a blind eye to the evidence that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner,” Scheindlin wrote. “In their zeal to defend a policy that they believe to be effective, they have willfully ignored overwhelming proof that the policy of targeting ‘the right people’ is racially discriminatory.”
More than 5 million stops have been made in New York in the past decade, mostly of black and Hispanic men. Police must have reasonable suspicion to stop someone, a standard lower than probable cause needed to justify an arrest. Only about 10 percent result in arrests.