New York City's Stop And Frisk Policy Declared Discriminatory, Judge Wants It Reformed

MESA, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), security contractors frisk Honduran immigration detainees deporting them on a flight to San Pedro Sula, Honduras on February 28, 2013 in Mesa, Arizona. ICE operates 4-5 flights per week from Mesa to Central America, deporting hundreds of undocumented immigrants detained in western states of the U.S. With the possibility of federal budget sequestration, ICE released 303 immigration detainees in the last week from detention centers throughout Arizona. More than 2,000 immigration detainees remain in ICE custody in the state. Most detainees typically remain in custody for several weeks before they are deported to their home country, while others remain for longer periods while their immigration cases work through the courts. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) (2013 Getty Images)

FILE - In this Sunday, June 17, 2012 file photo, Rev. Al Sharpton, center, walks with thousands along Fifth Avenue, during a silent march to end the "stop-and-frisk" program in New York. A federal trial is scheduled to begin in New York on Monday, March 18, 2013, where the NYPDs practice of stopping, questioning and frisking people on the street will face a sweeping legal challenge. The outcome could bring major changes to the nation's largest police force and could affect how other departments use the stop and frisk tactic. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) (A2012)

A one-time lawyer and former chief assistant district attorney will oversee changes to the New York Police Department's controversial program known as "Stop and Frisk," a federal judge has decided.

U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin said Monday that Peter L. Zimroth will be the independent monitor keeping an eye on the policy, which the judge said intentionally discriminates based on race – a significant judicial rebuke for what the mayor and police commissioner have defended as a life-saving, crime-fighting tool.

In both his lawyer and district attorney roles, Zimroth worked closely with the NYPD, the judge said.

The judge accused the police department's senior officials of violating law "through their deliberate indifference to unconstitutional stops, frisks and searches."

"They have received both actual and constructive notice since at least 1999 of widespread Fourth Amendment violations occurring as a result of the NYPD's stop and frisk practices. Despite this notice, they deliberately maintained and even escalated policies and practices that predictably resulted in even more widespread Fourth Amendment violations," she wrote in a lengthy opinion.

She also cited violations of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

"Far too many people in New York City have been deprived of this basic freedom far too often," she said.

"The NYPD's practice of making stops that lack individualized reasonable suspicion has been so pervasive and persistent as to become not only a part of the NYPD's standard operating procedure, but a fact of daily life in some New York City neighborhoods."

Four men had sued, saying they were unfairly targeted because of their race. There have been about 5 millionstops during the past decade, mostly black and Hispanic men. Scheindlin issued her ruling after a 10-week bench trial for the class-action lawsuit, which included testimony from top NYPD brass and a dozen people — 11 men and one woman — who said they were wrongly stopped because of their race.

Scheindlin concluded that the plaintiffs had "readily established that the NYPD implements its policies regarding stop and frisk in a manner that intentionally discriminates based on race."

The case was the largest and most broad legal action against the policy at the nation's biggest police department, and may have an effect on how other police departments make street stops, legal experts said.
City lawyers argued the department does a good job policing itself with an internal affairs bureau, a civilian complaint board and quality assurance divisions.

The city had no immediate response to the ruling.

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.