New York Governor David Paterson signs bill restricting NYPD's stop and frisk program/While Mayor Bloomberg, and Cops fume as gov purges frisk list

8:32 AM

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Some call it a violation, but the NYPD says its stop and frisk policy is necessary to fight crime.

Governor David Paterson signed a bill into law Friday, limiting the information police gain from street stops. The NYPD will still be allowed to keep a statistical record of the stop, but information like names and Social Security numbers will not be allowed to held in the database.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly says the personal information stored is used as a crime-fighting tool that saves lives. But critics say keeping information on people who are stopped, but not charged, is improper and a form of racial profiling.

"It's a privacy rights issue, but it's also an issue of whether or not the police department can maintain that date after they had a reasonable suspicion after stopping someone," Paterson said.

About 1,600 times a day, the NYPD stops and frisks or questions New Yorkers. Yet, the stops only lead to arrests or summonses 15 percent of the time. Still, Kelly insists the information gathered from the stops is a crime-fighting tool.

"I believe that the stop and question program is saving lives," Kelly said. "It's a life-saving program."

Recent Eyewitness News investigations have raised serious questions about the NYPD's stop and frisk policy. Among the findings: A record number of stops yielding few arrests. And when a summons is given, the court tosses them out half the time.

Critics say the stops result in an unconstitutional inventory of mostly young blacks and Hispanics who have not been arrested. State Senator Richard Brodsky, a candidate for attorney general, agrees.

"We don't need to create databases on innocent people in America, and we can protect our safety without doing that," he said.

The bill was introduced to prohibit police from saving people's personal data in cases when no enforcement action was taken. The database will still include a record of the stop, including the person's age and race and the location and reason for it, as the City Council began requiring in 2001.

The bill was signed around 10:30 a.m. Friday. Kelly responded with the following statement: "Albany has robbed us of a great crime-fighting tool, one that saved lives. Without it, there will be, inevitably, killers and other criminals who won't be captured as quickly or perhaps ever. They'll be free to threaten our neighborhoods longer than they would have been otherwise."

Black, Latino & Asian Caucus Urges Gov. Paterson to Sign Stop & Frisk Database Bill « News from Melissa Mark-Viverito

The Black, Latino & Asian Caucus has sent a letter to Governor Paterson, urging him to sign legislation approved by the Senate and Assembly which would prohibit police from entering the information of New Yorkers that have been stopped and frisked into a database if they are not arrested or ticketed.

Currently, after completing a stop and frisk, police have the authority to enter each individual’s name and information into its database, even when they are not found to be in violation of any law.  This practice raises serious civil liberties concerns.

The city’s stop and frisk policy has been found to be highly discriminatory against people of color, with blacks and Latinos making up 80% of those targeted. Studies have also indicated that nearly 90% of those stopped are not found to be in violation of any law.

The letter can be read below.  If you cannot view the letter, please click here.

via newsfrommelissa.wordpress.com

Paterson To Sign Stop-And-Frisk Legislation

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Governor David Paterson is expected to sign legislation later this morning making major changes to the so called stop and frisk database, sources tell NY1.

The new law will prevent police from maintaining a database on people who are stopped and not charged with a crime.

For instance, it will keep police from compiling a list of people they stop and frisk that fit the description of a crime that has just been committed -- if there are no supporting witnesses.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly are among the most vocal opponents of the legislation. Both have urged the governor to veto it.

State lawmakers who helped pass the bill say they wanted to do away with the database because it focused on minority neighborhoods.

NY1 will carry the bill signing live beginning at 10 a.m.

Related Stories

via ny1.com

Mayor Bloomberg, cops fume as gov purges frisk list

Gov. Paterson today is expected to sign a controversial bill that would delete an NYPD database with the names of hundreds of thousands of people who were stopped and frisked but never arrested, sources said.

The measure -- reviled by law enforcement and Mayor Bloomberg -- has been strongly favored by minority lawmakers in the state Legislature.

This week, all five Democratic candidates for attorney general called on Paterson to sign the bill to nix portions of the "250 database," so called because of the number on the form filed to the database.

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Three sources told The Post last night that the governor was expected to sign the bill this morning at a planned event in Manhattan.

"Albany has robbed us of a great crime-fighting tool, one that saved lives," Commissioner Ray Kelly fumed.

"Without it, there will be, inevitably, killers and other criminals who won't be captured as quickly or perhaps ever. They'll be free to threaten our neighborhoods longer than they would have been otherwise."

While some 12 percent of stop-and-frisks wind up with an arrest or summons, Kelly insisted the database has been invaluable in crime-fighting.

That info has been important in identifying suspects in 178 criminal cases -- including 17 murders -- over the last 18 months, he said.

The mayor's spokesman, Stu Loeser, added, "We're disappointed that police officers will be denied an important tool they have been using to solve crimes and prevent others."

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and state Sen. Eric Adams, both Brooklyn Democrats, sponsored legislation to erase certain information in the database from the police stops.

The bill would prohibit police from storing personal information -- such as name, Social Security number and address -- of individuals stopped by the police and released without further legal action.

But the database would still include a record of the stop, including the person's age and race and the place and reason for the stop.

Adams -- a former NYPD captain -- has argued the "stop, question, and frisk" form "began to be abused" during the Giuliani administration and "the current NYPD administration has taken the misuse to another level."

Since the bill's introduction, the issue has been a lightning rod for controversy, with the New York Civil Liberties Union denouncing the stop-and-frisk policy as targeting blacks and Latinos -- and the database as an invasion of privacy.

The group contends that in Brownsville, Brooklyn, "which has one of the city's highest stop-and-frisk rates," 99 percent of 52,000 police stops since 2004 targeted blacks.

It claims less than 1 percent ended in an arrest.

"That is an unbelievably poor yield rate for such an intrusive, wasteful and humiliating tactic," the group charged.

The 'ex' file

What bill would do:
* Prohibit NYPD from maintaining personal information in database on those stopped and frisked by police but not arrested. Currently, info is maintained in perpetuity.

How many names in database:
* 2.9 million forms filed in database since 2004, though that number may includes multiple filings on a single name

How many stop-and-frisks in 2009:
* More than 500,000

How many arrested:
* 12 percent arrested or issued summons; 88 percent let go

Additional reporting by Matthew Nestel and Sally Goldenberg

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

Posted via email from Street_Visuals

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