Federal monitor complains that city’s cops are not up to speed on street stop reforms
A new report from the NYPD’s federal monitor blasts the department for not fully complying with court-ordered reforms after a decade.
“As this is the [10th] year of the monitor being in place, it is fair to state that none involved envisioned the monitorship continuing for 10 years,” the monitor, Mylan Denerstein, said in her report. “Although the NYPD has made strides in some areas, it is quite unsettling that the NYPD is not in compliance with the court-ordered reforms in these cases.
“As we have advised repeatedly, the NYPD must focus on accountability at all levels within the department.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Privately, police officials have groused that the monitor hasn’t said what compliance rates or improvements would be sufficient for the monitorship to end.
Denerstein was named monitor following the November 2021 death of Peter Zimroth.
Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin appointed Zimroth in 2013 after ruling that the NYPD’s use of the stop, question and frisk tactic violated the rights of Black and Latino New Yorkers.
Denerstein says in her newly released year-end report that patrol officers “are generally compliant” when conducting and documenting street stops. But she said it’s a different story with officers assigned to specialized units.
She noted that her previous report, issued last June, found officers from the Neighborhood Safety Team, created in 2022 and tasked with getting guns off the street, had reasonable suspicion for only 76% of the stops analyzed, “an unacceptably low number.”
The NYPD responded with more training, but subsequent audits found the training “is not sufficient to change officer behavior,” Denerstein writes in the yearend report.
In addition, investigators for the monitor met with cops at two precincts to discuss how they conducted street stops.
“The differences between the commands were stark,” the report said.
Neither precinct was identified, but the report said that at the more compliant command there was “a culture of accountability,” with supervisors watching numerous body-worn camera videos of stops, then talking with the officers involved if there were concerns.
At the other precinct, the report said, there was no Neighborhood Safety Team sergeant in place and other supervisors were less experienced than in the first command, as were the Neighborhood Safety Team officers.
The year-end report also noted that too many stops — 31% of those audited in 2002, for instance — were recorded on body cams but not documented in writing.
The report called into question the efficacy of the Early Intervention Program, which NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell has cited as a way to identify and retrain officers breaking department rules.
The monitor “has seen a lack of accountability by commanding officers for their officers’ actions,” the report said.
Christopher Dunn, legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Denerstein’s conclusions are unsurprising.
“Given how slow police reform can be and how resistant the NYPD has been it’s no surprise the monitor still is in place,” Dunn said. “Indeed, it will be no surprise if the monitor remains essential 10 years from now.”