NYPD is lenient toward officers who illegally stop-and-frisk: review
NEW YORK (PIX11) – A court-ordered review of the NYPD found that the department is often lenient in disciplining officers who engage in illegal stop-and-frisks.
The federal judge overseeing NYPD reforms requested an outside review of the department's discipline methods. It stems from the landmark 2013 stop-and-frisk ruling, when a federal court found the tactic unconstitutional and called it "a policy of indirect racial profiling."
The court-requested report found that most of the stop-and-frisk violation cases under internal NYPD review resulted in reduced penalties or no discipline at all. The final say on major discipline cases often comes from the police commissioner after receiving recommendations from internal investigators or the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the report noted.
The report found that commissioners have repeatedly shown a willingness to excuse illegal stop-and-frisk searches on the account of good faith or lack of malintention.
PIX11 News reached out to the NYPD for comment on the review. The department said it plans to respond to the review.
Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.