NYPD Ordered to Turn 'Over Stop And Frisk' Data to NYCLU

New York, NY —

A state judge has ruled that the NYPD must turn over a copy of the data base it amassed as part of its controversial "stop and frisk" program to the New York Civil Liberties Union. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more.

The NYPD has documentation of the stopping and frisking of hundreds of thousands of black and Latino New Yorkers. 90-percent of those stopped weren't found to have been violating any law at the time. NYCLU attorney Chris Dunn says what the police were releasing publicly about the practice left a lot of questions unanswered.

DUNN: How many get stopped simply because they were walking around in a high crime area; which would be an illegal basis for a stop. The printed reports only suggest that is a significant problem. With the data base we can pin it down.

REPORTER: The judge's ruling noted that the NYPD had already turned the same data base over to two other organizations, the Rand Institute and the University of Michigan. The City's lawyers have not ruled out appealing the order, which would require them, to surrender the data base in the next 60 days.

For WNYC I am Bob Hennelly