Communities United for Police Reform Responds to Report on NYPD’s Stop and Frisk Practices

(NEW YORK, NY) - The Independent Federal Monitor of the New York City Police Department released a report finding that the NYPD has failed to comply with court-ordered mandates to end its unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices. In response to this report, Communities United for Police Reform spokesperson Loyda Colón, Executive Director of Justice Committee released the following statement:

“The NYPD has had over a decade to comply with the federal court order to stop violating the rights of New Yorkers with their racist, unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices, and yet, under Mayor Eric Adams, these abuses are at their highest rate in almost ten years. The impact of the NYPD’s refusal to comply with the federal court order is that Black, Latine and other communities of color are over-policed and violated on a daily basis and officers learn they can harass and harm New Yorkers with complete impunity.

The findings of the report underscore the need for the NYPD’s full compliance with the How Many Stops Act and for the city to transform its approach to public safety to minimize reliance on law enforcement and maximize investments in non-police safety alternatives and services and infrastructure for our communities.

This report further proves that the NYPD and the mayor put the protection of the police ahead of the protection of New Yorkers.”

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BACKGROUND

In 2013, a federal court appointed an independent monitor to oversee reforms ordered in Floyd v. City of New York, which challenged the NYPD’s racially discriminatory and unconstitutional stop-and-frisk and trespass enforcement practices. The Monitor’s latest report identifies a number of ways in which the NYPD is not in compliance with the court-ordered forms: 

• Eleven years into the federal monitorship, the NYPD is still not monitoring Fourteenth Amendment compliance, despite the federal court’s finding that its stop-and-frisk practices violate the Fourteenth Amendment rights of Black and Latino New Yorkers.
• NYPD officers failed to submit required reports in 31.4% of stops audited by the Monitor, demonstrating a failure to comply with a fundamental component of the court-ordered reforms.  
• Unconstitutional reported stops increased from 10.6% of stops in 2021 to 11.3% in 2022.
• Unconstitutional frisks increased over 50% between 2021 and 2022, from 15.8% to 23.9% 
• Unlawful searches increased nearly 50%, from 20.4% in 2021 to 29.9% in 2022.
• Specialized units, such as the Neighborhood Safety Teams (NST) which has drawn significant criticism for policing practices that harm Black and Latino New Yorkers, were found by the Monitor to engage in the majority of unlawful stops, frisks, and searches.
• The NYPD’s non-compliance continued into the first quarter of 2023, based on the existing data analyzed by the Monitor. 

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About Communities United for Police Reform

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an unprecedented campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, and to build a lasting movement that promotes public safety and reduces reliance on policing. CPR runs coalitions of over 200 local, statewide and national organizations, bringing together a movement of community members, lawyers, researchers and activists to work for change. The partners in this campaign come from all 5 boroughs, from all walks of life and represent many of those most unfairly targeted by the NYPD.