Police Tactics in New York City Housing Are Criticized - NYTimes.com

Judge Criticizes Stop-and-Frisk Police Tactics in Housing Projects
By AL BAKER and JANET ROBERTS

A Manhattan judge criticized the policing tactics in New York City Housing Authority developments, ruling on Tuesday that officers appeared to be routinely flouting the law by questioning people without legal justification.

The decision by acting Supreme Court Justice Analisa J. Torres barred the admission of 29 plastic bags of cocaine that the police seized last February from Jose Ventura in the lobby of the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side.

More broadly, the court action renewed a debate about the policing tactics in public housing, including the use of “stop, question and frisk” and vertical patrols. Officers use violations of Housing Authority rules — which forbid people from being in city housing projects unless they live there or are visiting someone — to justify the stops.

In her ruling, Justice Torres cited the testimony by Police Officer Jason Del Toro, who said the police could simply question anyone they encountered inside a public housing building. The judge wrote that officers had to have a legally meaningful reason for the stop, such as the site being drug- prone.

“To the extent that Del Toro’s description of vertical patrols is accurate, that in public housing the police routinely engage in random, unjustified questioning — and there is evidence that they do — the practice would amount to a systematic violation” of the court decision that spells out the legal basis for stops and questioning, Justice Torres wrote.

Police Tactics in New York City Housing Are Criticized - NYTimes.com.