503-page report shows commissioners since 2013 have repeatedly shielded officers who violate constitutional rights  

September 23, 2024, New York – The New York Police Department systematically refuses to discipline officers who conduct illegal stops and frisks, according to a new report. The endemic impunity starts with commissioners, who have repeatedly rejected recommendations to discipline officers confirmed to have committed abuses. 

The 503-page court-ordered report is the most comprehensive review of discipline for such violations since 2013, when – after the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit on behalf of Black and Latino New Yorkers — a court ruled that NYPD stop-and-frisk practices were unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. The federal court is accepting public comments on the report, with a deadline of December 25, 2024. 

“The findings in this report of systemic failure to discipline officers for illegal stops and frisks show that even ten years after the landmark ruling in our cases, the NYPD is failing to address unconstitutional conduct by officers,” said Samah Sisay, staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. “New Yorkers, especially Black and Brown New Yorkers, continue to bear the burden of these failures. It is perfectly clear that there is a need for real transparency and accountability because the police should not be trusted to police themselves.”

According to the report, successive commissioners have reduced or dismissed discipline for officers found to have committed violations by the Civilian Complaint Review Board or a department tribunal. But many offending officers never even face disciplinary proceedings because commanding officers in precincts simply tolerate abuses, the report found. 

“This report emphatically says the NYPD has failed to bring the NYPD into compliance with the Constitution, finding, inter alia, that the department fails to meaningfully discipline officers for bad stops and frisks,” said Jonathan C. Moore, of Beldock, Levine & Hoffman, co-counsel in the case. “This illegal conduct must come to an end. The plaintiffs in Floyd believe the only way to accomplish this is to remove the decision making on who is ultimately disciplined for bad stops and frisks from the commissioner and give it to an independent agency that will not perpetuate the history of the department turning a blind eye to the need to discipline officers for wrongdoing.”