New York Police Dept. Agrees to Curb Stop-and-Frisk Tactics
“We’re talking about stops and frisks and arrests in the sanctity of people’s homes that have had an incredible human toll on the relationship between the community and the police,” said Johanna Steinberg, director of the Impact Litigation Practice at The Bronx Defenders, which was also part of the lawsuit. “This will create accountability and…
Ligon v. City of New York
Filed on March 28, 2012, this federal class action lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Operation Clean Halls, a part of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program that allows police officers to patrol thousands of private apartments buildings across New York City. As far back as the early 1990s, Operation Clean Halls has enabled police officers to patrol…
City Limits: Four Nonprofits to Receive Residual Class-Action Settlement Funds
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, and The Bronx Defenders, all leading civil rights advocacy groups and law firms, announced that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has approved their request to equally distribute nearly $165,000 in remaining class-action settlement funds…
The Bronx Defenders Welcomes Mayor de Blasio’s Announcement to Reform Stop-and-Frisk and Drop the City’s Appeal
The Bronx Defenders welcomes the concrete step taken today by the de Blasio administration to drop New York City’s appeal of the federal district court rulings in the stop-and-frisk cases. Today, the City has filed a motion in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that seeks a remand to the Southern District to resolve these…
The Bronx Defenders hails today’s ‘Stop and Frisk’ decision by federal Judge Scheindlin
The Bronx Defenders hails today’s decision by federal Judge Scheindlin as a critical first step in recognizing and tackling the widespread abuses in the NYPD’s stop and frisk program. In landmark decisions in two class action lawsuits, a federal judge ruled today that the New York City Police Department has violated the constitutional rights of…
The New Yorker: Annals of Law: Rights and Wrongs
A Judge Takes on Stop & Frisk. Article by Jeffrey Toobin. Excerpt: “…Bradley took the ticket to the offices of the Bronx Defenders, who have pioneered what they call “holistic defense,” a method based on recognizing that, for criminal defendants like Bradley, deportation, eviction, or the loss of parental rights may be more ruinous than conviction…
The New York Times: Stop and Frisk, Continued
On our ‘Clean Halls’ class action lawsuit with co-counsel NYCLU and LatinoJustice PRLDEF – The Bloomberg administration and its police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, have been disturbingly dismissive of complaints about the city’s program of stops, frisks and arrests that is ensnaring hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers each year. Civil rights lawsuits may now force…
New York Law Journal: Class Action Seeks to Halt NYPD’s ‘Clean Halls’ Program
A number of New York City residents have filed a federal class action lawsuit challenging “Operation Clean Halls,” a program permitting the police, with the consent of landlords, to patrol thousands of private apartment buildings and stop people accused of trespassing and other illegal activity. “NYPD officers routinely detain residents of Clean Halls buildings and…
The Village Voice: NYPD Clean Halls Program Faces Legal Challenge
Later this morning, civil liberties advocates will announce a new challenge to the controversial NYPD program of patrolling the hallways of thousands of privately-owned buildings. Private owners enroll in the program, known as Operation Clean Halls, which has swelled in Manhattan alone to at least 3,895 buildings. The program envisioned as a way for police…
NY1: Lawsuit Claims NYPD “Clean Halls” Program Violates Civil Rights
Civil rights advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the New York City Police Department over a controversial program that allows officers to patrol private apartment buildings. The suit, submitted by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Latino Justice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, as well as lawyers with the Bronx Defenders, allege…
WNYC: NYPD Conducts Suspicionless Stops in Private Buildings: Suit
A federal class action was filed against New York City and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on Wednesday for what plaintiffs allege are suspicionless stops within private residential buildings. Under the NYPD’s enforcement of a program known as Operation Clean Halls, a landlord enters into an agreement with the NYPD, which grants officers permission to patrol…
Reuters: U.S. judge limits stop and frisk searches in New York’s Bronx
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the New York Police Department to immediately stop conducting trespass stops outside certain residential buildings in the borough of the Bronx without “reasonable suspicion” that an individual is engaged in criminal activity. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin issued her ruling in the narrowest of three main lawsuits challenging New…
Amsterdam News: Hands Off: Black community responds to U.S. District Court ruling of NYPD’s “Clean Halls” as unconstitutional
Could this be the first step to eliminating “stop and frisk?” On Tuesday morning, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge ruled that the New York Police Department’s “Clean Halls Program” violated the constitutional rights of New York City residents. According to Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, for years the NYPD…
The Huffington Post: Stop-And-Frisk Without Suspicion Must Cease In The Bronx, Judge Says
NEW YORK — The New York City Police Department likely turned a blind eye to violations of the constitutional rights of thousands of individuals detained at private residential buildings in the Bronx in a stop-and-frisk program that’s under assault in the courts, a federal judge said Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said the department’s…