Daniels, et al. v. The City of New York, et al.

Daniels, et al. v. The City of New York, et al. is a class action law suit filed against the New York Police Department in 1999 by the Center for Constitutional Rights. It challenged the racial profiling in connection to the NYPD’s policy of conducting stop-and-frisks without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity as required by the Fourth Amendment. The law suit sought to disband New York’s Street Crimes Unit (SCU) and bar the NYPD from stopping individuals without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity based solely on their race or national origin. cite web
url= http http://www.ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/daniels%2C-et-al.-v.-city-new-york
title=Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York
publisher=Center for Constitutional Rights
month=December | year=2003
accessdate=2008-03-17]

Case

The defendants initially moved to dismiss the case, citing a 1983 Supreme Court decision, City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, which held that plaintiffs lack standing to sue for equitable relief unless they allege that they face a realistic threat of future injury from the policy under challenge. The court denied the motion to dismiss.cite web
url= http://www.racialprofilinganalysis.neu.edu/legislation/litigation.php?state=2
title=Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York
publisher=Data Collection Resource Center
month=December | year=2001
accessdate=2008-03-17]

In a subsequent ruling, the court also refused to dismiss the plaintiffs’ equal protection clause claim and held that the plaintiffs had properly set forth an express racial classification by asserting that the SCU had a “policy, practice and/or custom of stopping and frisking [individuals] based solely on [their] race and/or national origin.”cite web
url= http://www.racialprofilinganalysis.neu.edu/legislation/litigation.php?state=2
title=Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York
publisher=Data Collection Resource Center
month=December | year=2001
accessdate=2008-03-17]

Result

While the case was in progress, the NYPD disbanded the SCU, a decision that was likely influenced by the 1999 Amadou Diallo killing and CCR’s lawsuit. In September 2003, after CCR had completed the depositions of top NYPD officials and had performed the discovery, the City agreed to settle the case.cite web
url= http://www.ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/daniels%2C-et-al.-v.-city-new-york
title=Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York
publisher=Center for Constitutional Rights
month=December | year=2003
accessdate=2008-03-17] cite web
url= http://home2.nyc.gov/html/law/downloads/pdf/pr091803.pdf| title=NYPD ANNOUNCES SETTLEMENT INDANIELS CLASS-ACTION “STOP-AND-FRISK” LAWSUIT| publisher=NEW YORK CITY LAW DEPARTMENT
date=September 18, 2003
accessdate=2008-03-17
format=PDF]

The settlement agreement, approved by Judge Scheindlin on December 12, 2003, requires the NYPD to maintain a written racial profiling policy that complies with the Constitutions of both the United States and New York State, and is binding on all NYPD officers. Additionally, it requires that the NYPD audit officers who engage in stop-and-frisks, as well as their supervisors, to determine whether and to what extent the stop-and-frisks are based on reasonable suspicion and whether and to what extent the stop-and-frisks are being documented. Furthermore, the results of these audits must be provided to CCR on a quarterly basis. The NYPD is also required to engage in public education efforts, including joint public meetings with representatives and class members as to its racial profiling policy, in addition to providing workshops at approximately 50 city high schools on the legal rights of those subjected to stop-and-frisks and developing handouts on these issues for distribution at these and other events. Judge Scheindlin has oversight over the settlement through 2007.cite web
url= http://www.ccrjustice.org/files/Daniels_StipulationOfSettlement_12_03.pdf | title=Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York
publisher=Center for Constitutional Rights
month=December | year=2003
accessdate=2008-03-17
format=PDF]

Currently, the Center for Constitutional Rights is engaged in enforcement to ensure that the NYPD complies with the terms of the settlement following the public release of new information released by the City of New York showing a remarkable increase in stop-and-frisks over the past several years.cite web
url= http http://www.ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/daniels%2C-et-al.-v.-city-new-york
title=Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York
publisher=Center for Constitutional Rights
month=December | year=2003
accessdate=2008-03-17]

References