CASE STUDY
NYPD Monitor
LOCATION
New York, New York
ISSUE
Advancing Justice
ACTIVE
2019-present
A research initiative to assess the legal and constitutional compliance of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) police-citizen street encounters and the accuracy of officers’ documentation of them. ISLG has worked with a team of experts to determine the legality of encounters as recorded on body-worn cameras (BWC) by analyzing encounters to better understand how frequently stops conducted by police are unlawful and identifying the characteristics of unlawful stops.
Challenge:
In 2013, the federal district court in Manhattan found that the NYPD’s policies and practices related to “stop, question, and frisk” were unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the NYPD was violating the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution, because police were making stops without reasonable suspicion and because the stops were based on individuals’ race or ethnicity—thus discriminatory. The Court formulated remedies, including the appointment of a Monitor to oversee reforms designed to ensure that NYPD encounters with citizens meet the requirements of the Constitution.
To effectively evaluate the NYPD’s progress and ensure implementation of those reforms, the Monitor required access to information on the vast array of NYPD encounters with citizens. One challenge in this regard is that many stops are not reported. This is particularly problematic because reported stops may differ in key ways from unreported stops.
Approach:
CUNY ISLG was selected by the Monitor to conduct a study addressing fundamental questions about the constitutionality of stops, searches and frisks conducted by the NYPD, including racial disparities, and the appropriate documentation of stops. To address these questions, the study examined a broad range of encounters, including those not reported as stops by officers, to be provided to the Monitor and the Court with important information on both underreporting and NYPD compliance with the Fourth Amendment.
Working with a team of retired New York state judges, ISLG has generated important data about the nature of police-citizen encounters, including information about the legality of encounters and the reasons certain encounters are unlawful. This has enabled quantitative analysis of the constitutionality of stops, including important insight into differences by citizen race and features of the stop. The study will provide a more nuanced portrait of police-citizen encounters—and their compliance with citizens’ rights—than has been previously available.
Progress:
The project is data-intensive and has followed a series of complex steps—from gathering BWC footage to selecting encounters and coding for features, to then coordinating with legal experts to classify and analyze encounters—to provide the Monitor and the Court with an evaluation of the encounters’ legal and documentation compliance. The data is now in the final stage of analysis. A full report on the study is expected in early 2025.
For more information on the NYPD Monitor project, please contact Kathleen Doherty at Kathleen.Doherty@islg.cuny.edu.