Calls grow for dissolution of NYPD's ‘Neighborhood Safety Teams’
(Michael Förtsch/Unsplash)
Over 97 per cent of individuals subjected to stop-and-frisk tactics by the New York City Police Department’s Neighborhood Safety Teams are Black or Hispanic, according to a new report.
Published on June 5 by Independent Monitor of the NYPD Mylan Denerstein and her team, the 40-page report exposed the rise of stop-and-frisks as part of the city’s new gun violence prevention initiative in high-crime areas.
The initiative, known as Neighborhood Safety Teams (NSTs), assigned officers to specific "high-crime" areas to combat gun violence in those communities.
The controversial program, introduced at the direction of Mayor Eric Adams, allows officers to wear "modified uniforms" and drive unmarked cars — stopping, frisking, and searching individuals believed to be in possession of an illegal firearm.
After reviewing a random sample of NSTs and their use of stop-and-frisks, Denerstein wrote "the results are disappointing," adding officers are conducting them at "an unsatisfactory level of compliance" and that too many people are being subjected to them unlawfully.
According to Denerstein, one police precinct’s data showed only 26 per cent of their searches followed legal protocol, meaning three of every four stop-and-frisks violated the human rights of those subjected to the tactic.
What makes the unconstitutional policing more concerning, the report continues, is the failure of sergeants, lieutenants, and commanding officers at the precinct level to identify and correct it, leaving little to no oversight of NSTs.
"The Department must focus on improving compliance levels. Clearly, it can be done. The law requires no less," Denerstein wrote in her executive summary.
The unconstitutional policing represents a failure by the NYPD to adequately address its legacy of violence and discrimination against Black, Hispanic and other New Yorkers of color.
Three years after the murder of George Floyd, it appears NST officers are making unlawful stops at a rate nine percentage points higher than the Department-wide compliance rate in 2020.
Data in some areas showed non-NST officers had a higher percentage of lawful stops than their NST counterparts. That’s notable, Denerstein wrote, because NST officers are specially trained and require a high level of experience in the force to even be eligible for the position.
Of the 230 drivers NST officers pulled over, just two stops resulted in the recovery of weapons. Two other stops found contraband that researchers were not able to identify.
Denerstein noted that the shortcomings identified in their report necessitate a more comprehensive review and confirmed that one will be conducted.
She also directed the NYPD to develop a plan to improve compliance rates for NSTs, due within the next 30 days.
That plan must shed light on potential underreporting of stops by NST officers, along with greater oversight by the Patrol Services Bureau and Housing Bureau.
Once received, the Monitor will review the plan and offer direction to the Department.
Experts say findings show NSTs should cease to exist
For the advocacy organization Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), the report reaffirmed their calls to get rid of NSTs and end violence and misconduct by NYPD officers.
"The racial disparities unearthed by this report make it more clear than ever that the so-called neighborhood safety teams are a failed, regressive, abusive, and discriminatory policing tactic that must be discontinued immediately," said Anthonine Pierre, executive director of the Brooklyn Movement Center and CPR spokesperson, in a June 5 news release.
Pierre added that the NYPD needs to reallocate funds for NSTs to investments in "real community safety solutions."
Denerstein’s team audited 187 stops by NST officers, analyzing body camera footage and reviewing stop reports.
The data showed NSTs made illegal stops at higher rates across every category than other NYPD officers. Of self-initiated stops where NST officers searched for a weapon, 46 per cent were unlawful.
"The NYPD has once again failed to take accountability and has only harmed New Yorkers and made us vulnerable to being harassed and abused by police," the news release continued.
Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and Council for Floyd, spoke out against "anti-crime units rebranded as neighborhood safety teams," calling for NSTs to be disbanded.
"These units are almost exclusively deployed into Black and Latinx communities, where they are conducting unlawful stops and engaged in the same racial profiling that New Yorkers have been organizing against for decades," Sisay said in a release.
Jonathan C. Moore served as lead counsel in Floyd v. City of New York, a class-action lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights. The 2013 case ruled stop-and-frisks were conducted illegally and required police to create a policy to specify when these tactics are authorized.
In a statement, Moore called out Mayor Adams, who testified for the plaintiffs in the Floyd trial.
"The mayor should know better than to endorse the creation of another rogue unit of the NYPD that goes out on the streets to find guns and ends up simply violating the rights of law-abiding New Yorkers," Moore said.