Q&A
Council Member Sanchez questions NYPD on illegal eviction procedures
0:55:11
·
158 sec
Council Member Pierina Sanchez engages in a Q&A session with Josh Levin from the NYPD regarding the department's procedures for handling illegal eviction cases. The discussion covers how officers gather and assess information, make determinations, and what actions they can take in response to illegal evictions.
- Officers consider the totality of circumstances to determine if an illegal eviction has occurred, rather than following a strict checklist.
- NYPD can issue summonses or make arrests based on unlawful evictions, preserving all evidence that led to their conclusion.
- There was clarification sought on which entity prosecutes these cases, with uncertainty whether it's the law department or the district attorney.
Pierina Sanchez
0:55:11
Thank you so much, council member nurse.
0:55:13
I just have one clarifying question, and then I'll turn it over to council member Abreu.
0:55:17
Mister Levin?
0:55:18
Levin?
0:55:19
Levin.
0:55:19
Levin?
0:55:20
Okay.
0:55:20
Thank you.
0:55:21
Levin.
0:55:21
Levin.
0:55:23
You you were talking about you said there's not a set checklist in in response to council member nurse, but you're talking about taking officers taking into account the totality of circumstances to determine whether an illegal eviction has occurred.
0:55:36
What do the officers then do with this information?
Josh Levin
0:55:39
So I I do wanna just step back and say one other thing I just wanna clarify.
0:55:42
We're we don't like making a very solid checklist that you have to have this or that because we don't want officers to not be able to take action in enforcement if one of those things isn't there.
0:55:51
I just wanna make sure.
0:55:52
Okay.
0:55:53
Now, back to your question, Cher.
0:55:55
What do they do with the information?
0:55:56
They gather it, and then they have to do an assessment about whether they believe every single element of the individual crime has been met.
0:56:03
So in other words, does the person have a right to be there, and have they been either affirmatively or constructively evicted?
0:56:11
Right?
0:56:11
Affirmatively, like, lock the door, but constructively would be turn the gas off.
0:56:14
There's no heat.
0:56:15
Well, I didn't lock you out, but you've been constructively evicted.
0:56:19
Right?
0:56:19
Because you have the right to, a full domicile and all the things that come with it.
0:56:24
So officers will gather all that information.
0:56:26
They will make a determination.
0:56:27
If they need, they will speak to a sergeant or a supervisor.
0:56:29
They will call legal, and they will ask us, hey.
0:56:32
I got this, this, and that.
0:56:33
We'll do case law research, etcetera, and then provide them with an idea of what the outcome could be.
Pierina Sanchez
0:56:40
So this is information that that is then shared with the prosecutors.
0:56:43
The the officers don't issue anything themselves?
Josh Levin
0:56:48
When you say issue anything, there's Summonses?
0:56:50
You could do a summons or you can do an arrest based off unlawful eviction.
0:56:55
And that's enshrined in the patrol guide.
0:56:57
But, yes, when we take enforcement action in compliance with the discovery laws, we preserve every one of the pieces of evidence that helped us reach that conclusion about probable cause.
0:57:07
And so, for example, if the tenant says, listen.
0:57:10
I got this I got these text messages from him that are saying, yeah.
0:57:13
You can start occupancy on February 1st.
0:57:17
Body warrant is on from the minute, right, officers go to begin an investigation or engage in in police duty.
0:57:23
And so you'll see, I've watched body you'll actually see the text messages.
0:57:26
That's the way to preserve it.
0:57:27
We also instruct officers take a picture of it, have the victim send you a screenshot because we wanna preserve this universe of information which we then hand over to the law department, I believe, actually, prosecutes it.
0:57:39
I'll double check that.
Pierina Sanchez
0:57:40
Got it.
0:57:41
Not not the district attorney?
Josh Levin
0:57:42
Yeah.
0:57:42
Let me double check that, but I believe yes.
0:57:45
Okay.
Pierina Sanchez
0:57:46
No problem.
0:57:46
Thank you.
0:57:46
Thank you so much.
0:57:47
While you double check that, council member Abreu?
