New York, NY – A retooled training program aims to teach New York Police Department officers the right way to stop someone on the street.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
A demonstration of the training on Wednesday came amid growing public criticism of the NYPD’s tactic of stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking people.
Each year hundreds of thousands of people are stopped. A judge allowing a federal class action lawsuit against the nation’s largest police department said earlier this year there was evidence of thousands of illegal stops.
Police have retooled training in response and meet monthly with clergy and community leaders.
More than 1,200 of the department’s 35,000 officers have received the training in the Bronx. More are scheduled.
Officers take turns acting as regular people being stopped to help train their colleagues. They’re also given seminars on courtesy and the laws governing street stops.
There is nothing wrong with demonstrating a little courtesy as long as the stops continue. Now as far as this Federal Lawsuit goes – not only does it have no merit, but the Judge Shira Scheindlin is more interested in burnishing her liberal credentials than she is in protecting people’s lives. its sad with these Federal Judges – they want desperately for people to know who they are under those robes. I say throw any activist Judge the hell off the bench. If you want people to get to know you join facebook.
Unless the cops have observed illegal behavior, it appears that detaining someone, and searching someone on a mere subjective basis, is illegal. The federal court should eventually throw out this illegal stop and frisk policy. This is not the same thing as someone boarding an aircraft or a train, and having their contents and persons search. The policy of stopping someone at random on the street for no reason, other than their looks or background, is wrong. How many other cities have such a policy? The NYCPD has never published any data, which substantiates its often repeated allegations that its policy helps reduce crime.