Mayor de Blasio, who campaigned on a promise to “end the era of stop-and-frisk policing,” moved Thursday to do just that.
He announced a deal to drop the city’s appeal of a court ruling that found the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk violated the constitutional rights of minorities.
Under the proposed settlement, the city would accept the remedies ordered by federal Judge Shira Scheindlin in her sweeping Aug.12 decision, including the appointment of an outside a monitor to oversee reforms.
The deal calls for the oversight by the monitor, Peter Zimroth, to last three years; Scheindlin’s decision had contained no end date.
The agreement, negotiated with the lawyers who had sued the city, represents a dramatic U-turn from the policies of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had denounced and appealed Scheindlin’s ruling, saying it would put the safety of New Yorkers at risk.
Standing alongside his police commissioner, William Bratton, inside a recreation center in Brownsville, Brooklyn — the community that has had more stop-and-frisks than any other — de Blasio argued just the opposite.
He said the reforms “will make everyone safer.”
“We’re here . . . to turn the page on one of the most divisive problems in our city,” the mayor said.
“We believe in ending the overuse of stop-and-frisk that has unfairly targeted young African-American and Latino men.”
The deal — if it is accepted by the courts — would end one of the most racially polarizing legal battles in modern city history.
The NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk has rankled minorities and civil rights activists for years, dating to the days of Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
But the practice soared under Bloomberg and his top cop, Ray Kelly, to more than 5 million stops in the past decade, mostly of black and Hispanic men. About 10% resulted in arrests or summonses; weapons were found 2% of the time.
The issue became a flash point in the mayoral race, with de Blasio pledging to scale back and reform the police use of the tactic.
In her ruling, Scheindlin said the NYPD’s application of stop-and-frisk policing amounted to a “policy of indirect racial profiling,” saying cops routinely stopped “blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white.”
The deal announced Thursday is not final.
City police unions have until Feb. 7 to file any objections, and the city has until Feb. 14 to reply.
Giuliani, who filed a legal brief supporting Bloomberg’s appeal, said it was a mistake to halt the appeals process.
“Everybody is entitled to have the court system play this out to the very end,” he said. “Otherwise the question remains forever, ‘Was (Scheindlin’s decision) political?'”
The president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch, had a more cautious response, saying only that “we continue to have serious concerns about how these remedies will impact our members and the ability to do their jobs.”
A police union spokesman, Al O’Leary, added, “This is a proposal. It’s not a solution yet. We’ve been given until Feb. 7 to tell the courts what we think about it. We’re in the process of putting that together now.”
Bratton, an architect of stop-and-frisk when he worked under Giuliani, said Thursday the reforms were essential to improving police-community relations.
“They are necessary to ensure the fabric of society . . . is in fact rewoven,” he said.
In a statement, he added, “We will not break the law to eforce the law. That’s my solemn promise to every New Yorker, regardless of where they were born, where they live, or what they look like. Those values aren’t at odds with keeping New Yorkers safe — they are essential to long-term public safety.”
With News Wire Services
