New York City appeals ruling imposing reform on NYPD stop-and-frisk
Head of city's law department says 'the safety of all New Yorkers' is at stake in controversy over police tactic
Only about 10% of millions of stops made under the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy result in an arrest. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
New York City officials have taken the first step in appealing a federal judge's ruling that imposed reforms on the city police department's stop-and-frisk strategy, after finding that the policy intentionally singled out minorities.
The city law department filed a notice of appeal on Friday, in US District Court in Manhattan. "We have moved ahead with our formal filings," said Michael A Cardozo, head of the city law department. "The mayor, the police commissioner and the city vowed to press forward immediately with an appeal – and we have done so. The safety of all New Yorkers is at stake."
Lawyers now have about three months to file the formal brief.
Officers have made about five million stops in the past decade under the program, mostly of black and Hispanic men. About half are frisked. Only about 10% of such stops end in arrest; a weapon is recovered a fraction of the time. A class-action lawsuit argued the department was wrongly targeting minorities and that officers were pressured to make stops by their superiors.
Judge Shira Scheindlin agreed in a lengthy opinion issued on Monday, finding that police made street stops based on race. She ordered changes to officer training, discipline and supervision and appointed an outside monitor to supervise and come up with specifics on how the changes will work. She made specific changes to the form officers fill out when recording a stop, and ordered a year-long pilot program of body-worn cameras in one precinct per borough where the most stops occur.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called the ruling unfair and warned that it will damage the NYPD's successes in fighting violent crime.
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