A federal judge today told five different police unions they can’t stop broad changes to stop-and-frisk that Mayor de Blasio agreed to in a settlement earlier this year. The ruling opens the door for the NYPD to overhaul the practice that was ruled unconstitutional last August. In the 108-page ruling, federal Judge Analisa Torres said the unions have “no significant protectable interests relating to the subject of the litigation that would warrant intervention.”
And so ends the department’s attempts to prevent stop-and-frisk reforms. Those changes, agreed to in January by the mayor and plaintiffs suing the city over what they said were illegal stop-and-frisks, include retraining officers, a new program that would put cameras on some officers, and an independent monitor to oversee the new process. Now they can finally go into effect.
