PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Michael Sisitzky, Assistant Policy Director of New York Civil Liberties Union, on NYPD Stop and Frisk Practices
3:19:47
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3 min
Michael Sisitzky, representing the New York Civil Liberties Union and Communities United For Police Reform, presented an analysis of NYPD stop and frisk data, highlighting racial disparities in police encounters and concerns about data transparency. He emphasized the need for more detailed incident-level information to identify trends and potential bias in policing practices.
- Reported that 68% of level one encounters and 86% of level two encounters targeted Black and Latinx New Yorkers
- Noted a large number of encounters (79,000) categorized as "other" without clear justification
- Highlighted the 46th precinct in the Bronx for issuing an unusually high number of summonses from level 1 encounters
- Called for more comprehensive data collection and reporting to enable better analysis of potential bias in police interactions
Michael Sisitzky
3:19:47
Alright.
3:19:48
Good afternoon.
3:19:48
Thank you, Chair.
3:19:49
My name is Michael Sisitsky, Assistant Policy Director with the New York Civil Liberties Union and a steering committee member of Communities United For Police Reform.
3:19:57
So, you know, the NYCLU has been analyzing stop and frisk data for years because of the critical importance of being able to identify trends, that the data reveals in unconstitutional policing practices.
3:20:08
And now to that data, we are able to add a more comprehensive view with the data that we're getting from the How Many Stops Act.
3:20:15
So I want to give just a few top lines on some of what we saw from our analysis.
3:20:19
Of course, recognizing this is just 1 quarter of data, without much to compare it to as a baseline.
3:20:25
But the data really showed that disparities do exist at all levels of police investigative encounters in New York City.
3:20:31
68% of level ones reported during that quarter, targeted black, Latinx New Yorkers, and 86% of level twos, involved, people who were black or Latinx and those disparities largely mirrored what we see in level 3 stop and risk data.
3:20:48
In the level 1 category, notably the, 2nd largest category of, of justifications for l one's in that data set were just listed as other.
3:20:59
Given the sheer volume of of encounters that we're talking about, we're talking about nearly 79,000 interactions that aren't given a clear justification.
3:21:07
It's a point for further oversight and investigation as to whether or not there are more clear lines that could be drawn there, more clear categories that could be made, because that's a lot of encounters to not have any justification listed for with just that broad other category.
3:21:22
There were a few kind of eye popping numbers that jumped out from our analysis, some of which, Council Member Stevens asked about earlier, including in the 46th precinct in the Bronx where, more than 1300 summonses were recorded as being issued in connection with level 1 encounters, which was by far the largest, in that data set and is, something that is really demanding of closer oversight and an explanation from the NYPD as to how that, precinct is driving so much enforcement from the lowest level of interactions.
3:21:55
I'll just quickly note some limitations and this was discussed as well.
3:21:58
We really need to have a clearer sense of incident level information, on these level 1 and level 2 encounters because that's what's really necessary to get at whether or not there are real trends or disparities and potential bias in how interactions are playing out.
3:22:12
We have data that's broken down that can tell us how many black people were stopped in a given precinct, how many of those level 1, encounters were a radio run, how many were self initiated, how many were for a quality of life issue?
3:22:25
But we can't link those things together.
3:22:27
We can't say that there were this many black people who were stopped in a precinct on an officer initiated encounter for a quality of life issue.
3:22:35
And getting that level of detail is going to be what's really critical for identifying whether there's bias, whether there are other, trends that we should be paying more attention to.
3:22:44
So we would encourage the NYPD to upload that information into future reports or the city's open data portal.
3:22:51
And if they're not collecting that data in a way that easily allows for that analysis, we should work to find ways to make sure that we are getting that level of detail going forward because that is going to be what's really critical to countering, and and pushing back on any unlawful or unconstitutional policing that's happening at those levels.
3:23:08
Thank you.
