NYPD’s Failure to Monitor Stop-and-Frisks by Controversial Unit Violates Court Order

The New York City Police Department’s Community Response Team (CRT) conducts a raid on a smoke shop in lower Manhattan in 2024. Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

A federal court ruled over a decade ago that the NYPD had been unconstitutionally stopping and frisking Black and Hispanic residents. The 2013 decision mandated reforms, including a requirement for the department to review officers’ stops to ensure legality. However, for most of the past three years, the NYPD failed to conduct these reviews for many officers in the CRT, a politically connected and aggressive unit.

The oversight failure was recently disclosed by the NYPD’s federal monitor, which oversees the department’s compliance with the 2013 stop-and-frisk decision. According to the monitor’s data, more than 2,000 stops were not properly reviewed. The CRT, which has faced criticism for sidestepping oversight while targeting quality-of-life issues such as unlicensed motorbikes and ATVs, has expanded significantly under the support of then-Mayor Eric Adams.

The lack of reviews is part of a broader pattern of the NYPD failing to meet its obligations under the court order. Officers across the department have often neglected to document stops, and the CRT’s aggressive tactics—including high-speed car chases—have raised concerns among some NYPD officials. The unit has also drawn hundreds of civilian complaints since its creation three years ago.

More than half of the officers assigned to the CRT have been found by the Civilian Complaint Review Board to have engaged in misconduct at least once in their careers, according to a ProPublica analysis of board data. This rate is significantly higher than the overall NYPD average. Prior to the latest discovery, the federal monitor had already raised alarms about the unit’s behavior. A report last year found that only 59% of stops, searches, and frisks by CRT officers were lawful—a rate far worse than that of the NYPD’s patrol units. Nearly all of these stops involved Black or Hispanic residents.

In a letter to the court, the federal monitor, Mylan Denerstein, stated that the newly discovered failure means the monitor’s figures on the CRT’s compliance rate are likely incorrect. The actual rate, Denerstein wrote, is “likely lower” than reported. In a statement to ProPublica, Denerstein criticized the NYPD’s failure to audit these stops, saying,

“The failure to audit these stops means unconstitutional stops, frisks and searches went undetected. This is unacceptable. The City must do more and prevent this from happening.”

In response, the NYPD stated that it has taken steps to address the issues under Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The department did not provide further details in its statement to ProPublica.