Adam Klasfeld reports that the NYPD cannot keep stop-and-frisk data in an unsealed database that could cause harm to people who were stopped but who were either never charged criminally or where the charges were not sustained. As the court explained in Lino v. City of New York:
It is undisputed that the Legislature enacted CPL sections 160.50 and 160.55 to remove any stigma related to accusations of criminal conduct (People v Patterson, 78 NY2d 711, 716 [1991]). Additionally, the Legislature’s objective in enacting the statute was to afford protection to accused persons “in the pursuit of employment, education, professional licensing, and insurance opportunities” (id.); see also Hynes, 47 NY2d at 662 [“(t)hat detriment to one’s reputation and employment prospects often flows from merely having been subjected to criminal process has long been recognized as a serious and unfortunate by-product of even unsuccessful criminal prosecutions . . . (and) (t)he statute’s design is to lessen such consequences”]). Specifically, CPL section 160.50 was enacted to ensure protection for exonerated individuals that is ” consistent with the presumption of innocence, which simply means that no individual should suffer adverse consequences merely on the basis of an accusation, unless the charges were ultimately sustained in a court of law'” (Matter of Joseph M. [New York City Bd. Of Educ.], 82 NY2d 128, 131-32 [1993], quoting Governor’s Approval Mem., 1976 McKinney’s Session Law of NY, at 2451).
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