Police Practices In New York: Between Racial Profiling, Discrimination and Unconstitutionality

Abstract

In August 2013, in a historic class action lawsuit, Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., brought against the City of New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and police officers, Judge Shira Scheidlin ruled that Stop and Frisk were unconstitutional, arguing that: “[i]n order for an officer to have reasonable suspicion’ that an individual is engaged in criminal trespass, the officer must be able to articulate facts providing a minimal level of objective justification for making the stop’ which means something more than an inchoate and unparticularised suspicion or hunch”. This article looks at the history, results, and consequences behind New York Police Departments’ standard policies for combating and preventing crime: Stop-and-Frisk.