NYPD receipts for nonarrests will spur complaints against cops, making them less aggressive: PBA head
BY TINA MOORE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Tuesday, August 25, 2015, 9:12 PM
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BRYAN R. SMITH/BRYAN R. SMITHPatrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch says receipts that explain cops' stops "are just one more item on the ever-growing list of anti-public-safety measures."
Forcing cops to provide receipts to people they stop — but don’t arrest — will invite complaints against the NYPD and make officers less aggressive, the head of city’s largest police union said Tuesday.
In other words, welcome to the bad old days.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said the stop-and-frisk receipts list the contact information for the Civilian Complaint Review Board — an independent police watchdog group. The presence of the CCRB’s contact information on the receipts, Lynch says, will give rise to “retaliatory complaints” against cops.
“They are just one more item on the ever-growing list of anti-public-safety measures that will put an end to proactive policing in this city and ultimately accelerate the increase in crime and disorder that we are already seeing in our public spaces,” he said.
Under the NYPD pilot program, scheduled to begin Sept. 21, cops will have to fill out a receipt explaining why the stop was made if the person isn’t arrested. But Lynch says the receipts, along with other mandates resulting from a federal lawsuit over the constitutionality of the stops, make doing police work more difficult.
“It is time for our policymakers to stop heaping new burdens on police officers and to figure out how to unwind the damaging measures that are already in place before the erosion in public safety does serious damage to NYC’s economic health,” Lynch said.
The receipt-writing program follows a court-appointed monitor’s recommended reforms to the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics. They include barring stops based on race and requiring cops to have reasonable suspicion before using the controversial tactic.
The number of stops are on pace to plunge 42% by the end of the year. Some critics blamed the drop for a double-digit increase in murders earlier this summer. But the murder numbers have since leveled off with a 7% increase through Sunday.
Jenn Borchetta, senior counsel of the plaintiff’s legal team in the federal class action lawsuit that led to the appointment of a monitor over the NYPD, said the receipt program is a “good step” but “doesn’t go far enough.”
The receipts include a blank space where officers input their badge numbers. Her group wants information about the officer already on the card. There is also nothing connecting the receipt to the specific stop.
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"Lynch says the receipts are onerous for cops." If he thinks the cops are so inconvenienced by having to issue an explanation and proof of their actions, he should think about what it feels like to be stopped on the street, made a spectacle of by having passerby watch as you are forced to spread your arms and legs while your pockets and belongings are searched, and when the police find nothing - as happened in more than 80% of their unwarranted searches of people - you are then supposed to just go on your merry way. Lynch is more afraid of what will happen when the sheer volume of documented proof of police stopping people who have done nothing wrong will be on display for everybody to see.
Under the requirement, scheduled to take effect Sept. 21, cops will have to fill out a receipt explaining why the stop was made if the person isn't arrested.
Excellent since the NYPD does work for the PEOPLE of NYC and we pay their salary. As the Police say if you have nothing to worry about, then why are they worried?
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