In a story in The Wall Street Journal, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has announced the creation of an advisory panel with 12 hand-picked representatives from the community as its response to the groundswell of opposition that has emerged against the Department’s unlawful and discriminatory stop-and-frisk program, a move dismissed by the leadership of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“The out of control stop-and-frisk program demands a major overhaul, not a PR campaign. And the NYPD needs an Inspector General to ensure independent oversight and accountability, not a cherry-picked community panel,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “The police commissioner has sworn complaints in four major class-action lawsuits in front of him and a scathing decision by a federal judge just a few weeks ago. The facts are out there. What’s missing are the reforms.”
In response to discriminatory policing practices like the abuse of stop-and-frisk, the NYCLU and our allies in Communities United for Police Reform are working to pass the Community Safety Act, a series of City Council bills that would…
- strengthen the definition of discrimination,
- ensure that New Yorkers understand their right to not consent to searches where no probable cause or warrant exists,
- require that NYPD officers identify themselves when conducting stop-and-frisks or engaging in other police activities, and
- create an NYPD Inspector General’s office.
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Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, new york, New York State Politics, News, social & economic justice Tagged: | Frisk, Inspector General, New York City Police Department, New York Civil Liberties Union, NYPD, Wall Street Journal
[…] NYCLU: NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Panel is PR, Not Reform […]