NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell on Friday responded to a report published earlier this week that found a significant number of stops conducted by officers were illegal.
A court-appointed federal monitor on Monday released the review of NYPD stop-and-frisks, revealing most stops disproportionately targeted Black and Hispanic men. It also found the mayor's Neighborhood Safety teams were the most prone to engaging in illegal stops.
During an appearance on “Mornings On 1,” Sewell publicly responded to the report for the first time and assured New Yorkers that the department is taking the allegations seriously.
“We take this report very seriously, and so does the mayor,” she said.
Sewell also noted significant progress had been made by the NYPD in reducing the number of stops.
“I think it's important to understand where we were versus where we are. In 2011, which was the high watermark for stops – we were at 684,000 stops at that time. Last year, we had just over 15,000. These reasonable suspicion stops are legal, and they are effective. But, I will say they have to be done constitutionally. When we looked at the monitor's report and we reviewed the same stops, our error rate was about 18%,” she said.
Representatives of the Legal Aid Society have urged the Adams administration to examine the report and work to address issues, rather than continuing to justify the stops.
Sewell has said that the department is examining the issues, however, explaining many of the alleged illegal stops occurred because officers mistakenly believed they had reasonable suspicion to conduct the stops. She said that the department is actively working to rectify those errors through enhanced training and a thorough review processes.
“Our professional standards bureau weekly goes over the body-worn cameras in the Neighborhood Safety teams and brings them in to be able to have them articulate what they saw, what rose to the level of search and to be able to correct when we see these stops are being handled inappropriately,” she said.