According to a court-appointed federal monitor, New York City's reliance on the "stop and frisk" strategy as part of a new initiative to curb gun violence is affecting communities of color and breaking the law.
Mylan Denerstein, a monitor, claimed that the Neighborhood Safety Teams, which the NYPD has used in recent months to confiscate weapons in high-crime areas, were participating in unconstitutional policing by stopping and frisking an excessive number of citizens without any legal cause.
The Neighborhood Safety Teams, which operate in 34 neighborhoods where 80% of the city's violent crime occurs and which are primarily communities of color, are a substitute for the anti-crime teams that the NYPD discontinued in 2021. Denerstein claimed that 97% of those the teams have stopped are Black or Hispanic.
The Denerstein's Methodology
City officials "have serious concerns" with Denerstein's methodology, according to a representative for Mayor Eric Adams, and they only became aware of her conclusions after news organizations reported on them. Shootings have decreased, according to the spokesperson, Fabien Levy, since the Neighborhood Safety Teams were established.
After Adams revealed in March 2022 that the NYPD was establishing Neighborhood Safety Teams in some precincts to fight gun crime, Denerstein claimed she started her review. In their designated neighborhoods, team members perform stops, frisks, and searches while driving unmarked cars and wearing modified uniforms.
The Civil Rights Violation By NYPD In 2013
A federal judge decided in 2013 that the NYPD had violated the civil rights of Black and Hispanic New Yorkers through the use of stop and frisk, a tactic used to remove weapons and drugs off the streets by routinely stopping and searching bystanders.
The stops, according to U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, were an instance of subtly racial profiling. Former mayor Michael Bloomberg, who originally supported the strategy, has since issued an apology.
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