New York City is moving to drop its appeal of a ruling that found the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk tactic is unconstitutional and would accept a federal monitor to oversee the practice, the Wall Street Journal reports. Before the appeal is withdrawn, the city is asking the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to send the case back to the lower District Court, where it will ask that a federal monitor imposed by Judge Shira Scheindlin be limited to three years. After that, the responsibility of monitoring stop-and-frisk would fall to the NYPD’s inspector general, a new position that has yet to be filled.
The city’s request is expected to be approved, and the plaintiffs in the suit that resulted in the monitor supported it at a news conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We are here today to turn the page on one of the most divisive problems in our city,” de Blasio said at a news conference in a largely black Brooklyn neighborhood that had one of the highest rates of police stops. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, asked if the people of New York deserved an apology, said, “In some respects, the apology is the fact that the city (is) moving forward to address what clearly the court identified as inappropriate practices on the part of the department.” He said 3,000 people had been stopped since he became commissioner this month. Four unions representing NYPD officers have also filed appeals and motions opposing dismissal of the city’s appeal.