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Police Officers May No Longer Hold

People as They Check for Warrants
A settlement filed Friday will bar N.Y.P.D. officers from detaining
people at length as they check databases for reasons to arrest
them.

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Officers would often hold people to conduct warrant checks using digital databases
that rely on surveillance systems, according to the suit. Jose A. Alvarado Jr./The New
York Times

By Chelsia Rose Marcius

Dec. 16, 2022, 7:41 a.m. ET

New York City police officers can no longer detain people solely to
determine if there is a warrant for their arrest, if they don’t believe
a crime has happened or is imminent, under a settlement filed in
Manhattan federal court on Friday.

The police often stop people because officers believe they have
illegal weapons, or have committed another crime. But now, during
these stops, officers will be permitted to ask only questions related
to the stop itself, under the new settlement. If the reason for the
stop is resolved, the person will be free to go.

Previously, even if officers did not find evidence of a crime, they

would often hold people longer to conduct warrant checks using
digital databases that rely on surveillance systems, according to a
lawsuit brought by the Legal Aid Society, Handley Farah &
Anderson and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan on behalf of seven people
who were the subjects of these warrant checks.

The case challenged practices reminiscent of policing in the 2000s,

when stop-and-frisk tactics often targeted people of color as
officers sought guns and drugs. Those practices were later deemed
unconstitutional .

Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, has lauded stop-and-

risk in his crusade against crime. While he has acknowledged the
department abused residents in the past, he said the practice is still
a necessary tool for officers on the streets. Editors’ Picks

Friday’s settlement, in which the city admitted no liability, requires Yo-Yo Ma Is Finding
His Way Back to
it to pay about $454,000 in damages. All officers must also be Nature Through
Music
trained in the new policy changes by the end of January.
A Child’s Drawing
Efforts to reach the department and city lawyers for comment Tucked in an
Agatha Christie
were not immediately successful early Friday. Book Is Its Own
Mystery
Molly Griffard, a staff attorney with the Cop Accountability Project
My Stint as the
at the Legal Aid Society, said that detaining people to look for Adulterous Flavor-
outstanding warrants turned “each of these stops into an unrelated
fishing expedition.”

The settlement “holds the N.Y.P.D. accountable for infringing on

the rights of New Yorkers,” she said.

Terron Belle, 29, the lead plaintiff in the case had been walking
home from the subway in 2017 when four plainclothes officers
approached him at West 150th Street and Bradhurst Avenue in
Manhattan and searched him, according to the complaint.

The officers said they stopped him because they believed he was
carrying an illegal gun, Mr. Belle said. Even when they found
nothing, the officers still demanded to see his identification. They
then detained Mr. Belle while they scanned their databases for
open warrants.

There were none.

“I was treated like a criminal and held against my will so that they
could run a warrant check on me when I had done nothing wrong,”
Mr. Belle said in a statement following the settlement.

Chelsia Rose Marcius covers breaking news and criminal justice for the Metro desk, with
a focus on the New York City Police Department.

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