Over on TechDirt, Tim Cushing writes:
More than a decade ago, the NYPD was sued successfully over its stop-and-frisk program. A federal court found the program routinely violated rights and disproportionately targeted minorities. Judge Shira Sheindlin ordered a number of reforms to the program and it was placed under federal oversight.
Since then, the NYPD hasn’t changed much about how it handles these interactions. Officers were required to document these stops and provide demographic information about those stopped and/or frisked. It refused to do this.
It was ordered to more closely adhere to the Constitution. It didn’t do this either. Instead, the number of stops/frisks declined precipitously… at least on paper. But if cops weren’t filling out the forms, that meant an untold number of stops were happening every year. And that meant the new, radically lower number of stops was probably an illusion.
Read more at TechDirt.