Stop-and-Frisk Attorneys Comment on Monitor's First Report

Today, the court-appointed monitor overseeing reforms to the New York City Police Department's unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices filed his first interim report on the steps taken to date to implement the court's orders in the Center for Constitutional Rights' case, Floyd v. City of New York. The Center issued the following statement:

The monitor's report reflects some initial, important steps the parties have taken in the long process of ensuring constitutional policing in compliance with the court's 2013 permanent injunction in our Floyd case. The report identifies changes in policies relating to the constitutionality of stop and frisk, the promulgation of a new racial profiling policy, important changes to the documentation and supervisory review of stop and frisks, and substantially revised training processes for new recruits, which will be expanded and improved in future months. Still, this is no "Mission Accomplished" moment. There is a great deal of work to be done given the broad range of reforms identified by the court as necessary to rectify years of unconstitutional and discriminatory policing and ensure police accountability to the communities they serve. It has been nearly a year since Eric Garner was killed by the NYPD. As we approach that grim anniversary, we also look forward to beginning the work of the Joint Remedial Process to bring forward the concerns of affected communities who have been organizing across the city to press for transformative change in policing. We hope it will allow stakeholders the substantive role in identifying needed reforms and seeing them put into practice that which was ordered by the court.

In August 2013, the Center for Constitutional Rights and co-counsel won a landmark ruling that found the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices to be racially discriminatory and unconstitutional under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The court appointed a monitor to oversee reforms, including a joint remedial process that is intended to solicit substantive input from directly-affected communities as well as other stakeholders.

Read more about Floydhere.

Demos, Covington & Burling LLP, and Bedlock Levine and Hoffman LLP are co-counsel in the case.