Anti Federalist
05-29-2011, 09:21 PM
Suit Challenges NYPD’s Taxi Stop-and-Frisk Effort
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/05/26/lawsuit-challenges-nypds-taxi-stop-and-frisk-effort/
New York Civil Liberties Union officials filed a lawsuit seeking to place restrictions on a program that allows police to pull over some taxis and liveries, alleging that officers are using these inspection stops to question and search passengers.
The lawsuit focuses on the New York Police Department’s Taxi/Livery Robbery Inspection Program, or TRIP, which allows officers to pull over without cause any taxi and livery cab whose company has voluntarily enrolled in the program. Participating vehicles are identified by a decal. The program guidelines stipulate that officers are allowed to visually inspect the vehicle and briefly question the driver.
In at least two cases, the NYCLU alleges that passengers were told they were subject to police questioning and searches because they riding in participating vehicles. The lawsuit states that nothing in the program allows officer to “detain, question, frisk, or search passengers without independent suspicion of wrongdoing.”
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne defended the practice. “Police stops save lives, so does the TRIP program,” he said in an email.
Terrence Battle, a 38-years-old manager at Hot 97 and KISS FM radio stations, was returning from a comedy show late at night last October when police stopped the livery car he was riding in, according to the lawsuit. Three officers approached the car, which was stopped in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, and ordered Battle to step out even after the driver said that everything was all right, the complaint states.
The officers asked for identification and then patted down and searched Battle’s pockets, the complaint states. When Battle asked the officers why they were searching him, one officer pointed to the program decal and told him that under the program’s guideline’s they were allowed to search passengers.
The complaint also details a similar livery car stop by in Harlem four days later.
The NYCLU’s suit, filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday, seeks an injunction prohibiting NYPD officers from detaining, questioning or searching passengers based solely on the fact that the liveries and taxis are enrolled in the program.
“We’re not challenging the program in general but we are challenging the police pulling passengers out of the cars and searching them without any suspicion or cause,” said Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU’s associate legal director.
The city has three weeks to answer the complaint.
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/05/26/lawsuit-challenges-nypds-taxi-stop-and-frisk-effort/
New York Civil Liberties Union officials filed a lawsuit seeking to place restrictions on a program that allows police to pull over some taxis and liveries, alleging that officers are using these inspection stops to question and search passengers.
The lawsuit focuses on the New York Police Department’s Taxi/Livery Robbery Inspection Program, or TRIP, which allows officers to pull over without cause any taxi and livery cab whose company has voluntarily enrolled in the program. Participating vehicles are identified by a decal. The program guidelines stipulate that officers are allowed to visually inspect the vehicle and briefly question the driver.
In at least two cases, the NYCLU alleges that passengers were told they were subject to police questioning and searches because they riding in participating vehicles. The lawsuit states that nothing in the program allows officer to “detain, question, frisk, or search passengers without independent suspicion of wrongdoing.”
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne defended the practice. “Police stops save lives, so does the TRIP program,” he said in an email.
Terrence Battle, a 38-years-old manager at Hot 97 and KISS FM radio stations, was returning from a comedy show late at night last October when police stopped the livery car he was riding in, according to the lawsuit. Three officers approached the car, which was stopped in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, and ordered Battle to step out even after the driver said that everything was all right, the complaint states.
The officers asked for identification and then patted down and searched Battle’s pockets, the complaint states. When Battle asked the officers why they were searching him, one officer pointed to the program decal and told him that under the program’s guideline’s they were allowed to search passengers.
The complaint also details a similar livery car stop by in Harlem four days later.
The NYCLU’s suit, filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday, seeks an injunction prohibiting NYPD officers from detaining, questioning or searching passengers based solely on the fact that the liveries and taxis are enrolled in the program.
“We’re not challenging the program in general but we are challenging the police pulling passengers out of the cars and searching them without any suspicion or cause,” said Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU’s associate legal director.
The city has three weeks to answer the complaint.