NYPD stop-and-frisk 'receipts' get cold reception on the streets
Officers must issue new forms to people who they question without arresting
The last time he was stopped, searched and questioned by New York City police while walking in the Bronx, Joseph Reed had some questions of his own.
"I asked him, what's the probable cause? Who's your supervising officer? Who's the officer in charge? What's his name?" the 47-year-old veteran recounted on a rainy day last week at the corner of West 42nd St. and 8th Ave., a flashpoint for stop-and-frisks in midtown Manhattan.
Reed said that during the police check last month he was made to stand against a wall. According to police, he matched the description for a black perp in red shorts who had just pinched a phone from a passenger on the 4 train.
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But his insistence on getting the officer's identity seemed to be particularly irksome, especially when police found no contraband on him.
"The lieutenant who put his hands on me, he didn't want to give me no name," Reed said. "I asked and I asked. They didn't try to hear it."
Technically, according to civil rights experts, police didn't have to supply a name. But that was in early September. And what a difference a month can make.
Under new NYPD rules following a federal judge's 2013 ruling that declared stop-and-frisks unconstitutional, police have formally introduced a system of issuing stop "receipts" to justify reasons for every such encounter.
The paperwork requires officers to fill out special forms identifying themselves, as well as providing their badge numbers and a written explanation for what prompted a stop that doesn't result in an arrest.
Controversial tactic
The new NYPD policy mirrors changes that the Toronto police introduced in June, allowing officers to continue the controversial practice of "carding" individuals suspected of criminal activity, but requiring police to provide a receipt with an explanation for each interaction.
To civil-rights activists who have long condemned stop-and-frisk as a tactic that unfairly targets Hispanics and blacks, the new NYPD measures could restore some degree of public trust in New York's finest.
"These policy changes are important first steps in reducing illegal and discriminatory stops," said Chris Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"The new receipts (scheme) will improve accountability and hopefully de-escalate tensions during police stops."
But just because the NYPD is compelled to go along with the new receipts policy doesn't mean they have to like, the head of the policing union said.
Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, warned the receipts would endanger public safety, calling the program "another nail in the coffin of practical policing."
Police commission Bill Bratton has defended the aggressive stop-and-frisk policy, arguing it's a necessary criminal deterrent.
"You cannot police without it," he told a local radio station. "If you did not have it, then you'd have anarchy."
Instead of improving community relations, these receipts will accelerate an increase in crime and disorder.- Patrick Lynch, president of Patrolmen's Benevolent Association,
Lynch added that the receipts policy will do little else "but invite retaliatory complaints against police officers" trying to protect the citizenry.
"Instead of improving community relations, these receipts will accelerate an increase in crime and disorder, which will damage the city's economic health while hurting those crime-ridden communities who need our protection the most," he said.
Reed isn't completely sold on the idea himself.
He concedes the reforms might have saved him the trouble of demanding that officer's name last month. But as far as trusting the "the jump-out squad" to follow through the rules during each and every pat-down? He's not so sure about that.
"If you're recording the cops in some violation, they can grab your phone and smash it. So what can a receipt do?" he said. "That's like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. That is not a solution to the problem."
Reed, who says he's filed at least four grievances with the Civilian Complaints Review Board alleging he was unjustifiably stopped and frisked, hasn't been randomly searched in the city since the new stop forms debuted.
His friend, Kenoris Brooks, believes he might have avoided getting a court summons if it had been this week that he was stopped by police. Instead, he received a notice for "disorderly conduct" on Sept. 13, according to the pink slip tucked in his wallet, apparently owing to his presence in a high-crime area.
Brooks, 38, said he was having a coffee with a friend on a corner of the Inwood neighbourhood's Dyckman Street Strip — another stop-and-frisk hotspot in a district of northern Manhattan dubbed "Alcohol Alley."
"I'm standing there talking to my man and all that, and then the TNT jumps out," Brooks said, using the acronym for the city's tactical narcotics team. "They asked us for ID and give me a ticket. No explanation. I say what's this ticket for? He says, 'You know what this is about. This is a hotspot.'"
That explanation wouldn't fly under the new regime. According to a September 21 NYPD internal memo obtained by the New York Daily News, two factors once cited as reasons for a stop — a person making furtive movements and being in a high-crime neighbourhood — are no longer acceptable.
Brooks was free to go. Police gave him his ID back. But what he really wanted, he says, was an explanation, something that would have at least been afforded to him had he been issued an NYPD stop receipt.
They were just saying, 'You know what this is about.' Well no, I don't," Brooks said. "That's exactly my point."
Crime reduction?
There's little evidence to support the assertion that stop-and-frisk reduces crime.
New York University sociologist David Greenberg analyzed the relationship between the policing tactic and crime rates, and concluded there was "no evidence that misdemeanor arrests reduced levels of homicide, robbery, or aggravated assaults."
Of the 46,235 instances in which New Yorkers were stopped by police last year, the party being searched was innocent 82 per cent of the time, according to the NYCLU.
The controversial practice has slowed since Mayor Bill De Blasio assumed office. In the first half of this year, New Yorkers were stopped by the police 13,604 times. In 2011, there were 685,724 stops.