Adams pushes back on fed monitor’s stop-frisk report
Mayor Adams challenged the findings of a recent report issued by the federal monitor overseeing the NYPD, saying Monday that while he hasn’t yet read it, the department appears to be effectively recording the number of stop-and-frisks it’s making in the city.
The report, which was issued Friday by the monitor, Mylan Denerstein, found that the NYPD needs to take “additional steps to address the issue of underreporting for the [NYPD] to be in compliance.”
Adams suggested Monday that addressing the department’s use of stop and frisk is “not complicated” and that the solution is rooted in “continuous training.”
“If you stop someone, you have to fill out the report,” Adams, a former NYPD captain, said at an unrelated press conference Monday. “Remember, this is what I advocated for as a police reformer: that it’s imperative that we fill out the report.”
Adams added that while he hasn’t yet read the monitor’s report, he is not aware of the NYPD underreporting the number of stops it initiates.
“That’s not what I’m getting,” Adams said. “And if something in that report reveals that is happening, we have to be training officers and make sure that they’re doing it right. Stop someone. Fill out the report. This is not rocket science.”
Adams has frequently pointed to his efforts before becoming mayor to rein in the NYPD’s abuses when it comes to stop and frisk. The monitor was appointed to oversee the NYPD after a federal judge found that the department disproportionately targeted Black and Brown people for stops.
The monitor’s latest report — the first since Adams became mayor — found that, overall, the Police Department has “made significant strides” in meeting reform requirements first set out by the court in 2013, but it also noted that “more needs to be done.”
“The underreporting of stops has been acknowledged by the department and explicitly identified in NYPD audits,” the new report states. “Any assessment of compliance with the court’s remedial orders will be impossible unless the department finds ways to ensure that unreported stops are no longer a significant issue.”