NYPD Stop, Questionand Frisk Search
Excerpt from article
Explains Guidelines, Protection
NYPD Memo Intended To Ease Cop Profiling Fear
By MARK TOOR— Monday, December 2nd, 2013; 5:00 p.m.‘The Chief / Civil Service Leader’
The NYPD issued a memo to officers Nov. 22 that seems aimed at reassuring them about the new law allowing people who feel they were profiled to sue, which took effect in November.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the memo, which was to be read at 10 consecutive roll calls, was “an attempt to explain the law and what the law says in essence.” He said it was possible that the new law could cause “some reluctance” on the part of officers to engage in stop-and-frisk.
Aimed At Curbing Stops
One of the goals of the law was to force the department to rein in its aggressive program, which was declared unconstitutional in August by a Federal Judge.
The five law-enforcement unions have expressed concerns about the law, which expands the definition of profiling to include not only race and ethnicity but factors such as gender, age, disability, housing status and sexual identity. It allows people to sue in state courts seeking orders to ban discriminatory policies. They cannot receive monetary damages but can be awarded legal and expert-witness fees.
The unions say it paints police officers as guilty rather than innocent at the start of a trial, since the law requires that they prove they were not discriminating to get off the hook. They also say officers could be held personally liable for the legal and witness fees.
The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association was not mollified by the NYPD memo. Its president, Patrick J. Lynch, said, “Racial profiling was already appropriately prohibited as illegal prior to the implementation of Local Law 71, which was an election-driven piece of legislation that will cost lives and bring crime and disorder back to the city.
