By Graham Rayman
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly today issued two new department orders which could sharply effect the way police execute the stop and frisk program.
The orders come a day after a federal judge broadened a class action lawsuit filed to force the department to discontinue its stop and frisk campaign. The decision allows hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to seek legal recourse if they believe they were unlawfully stopped.
In her decision, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin was critical of the police, writing that she was disturbed by the Bloomberg administration’s “deeply troubling apathy towards New Yorkers’ most fundamental constitutional rights.” She also said that the city had a “cavalier attitude,” and that “suspicionless stop should never occur.”
The first order essentially reemphasizes the department long-held position that racial profiling is prohibited and notes, “Members of the service are reminded that the NYPD is committed to the impartial enforcement of law and the protection of constitutional rights.”
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