Our Mission & Focus
The Monitor Team works to ensure that the NYPD engages in constitutional stops, frisks, and searches.
The Monitor Team’s focus is on the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices, as well as its trespass enforcement. The Monitor Team regularly assesses the NYPD’s compliance and publicly files reports with the court detailing their findings.
Know Your Rights
When you are stopped, frisked, and/or searched by a New York City police officer, you have certain rights.
Who We Are
Latest Report
On February 3, 2025, the Monitor filed its Twenty-Third Report, regarding the stop, frisk and search practices of the NYPD’s Neighborhood Safety Teams (“NSTs”) and Public Safety Teams (“PSTs”), with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Highlights include the following:
- NST and PST officers do not perform stops, frisks, and searches at constitutionally compliant levels, and supervisors of NST, PST, and patrol officers do not appropriately oversee their officers.
- NST officers have not improved their constitutional compliance with respect to stops, frisks, and searches since the Monitor’s 2022 audit. In the 2022 audit, NST officers had a lawful basis for 76% of Terry stops; in the 2023 audit, that figure dipped slightly to 75%.
- Compliance also lagged for frisks and searches. Only 58% of NST officers’ frisks and 54% of their searches were lawful.
- Both NST officers and PST officers make lawful stops at rates lower than do patrol officers. While 92% of patrol officers’ stops were lawful, only 75% of NST officer stops and 64% of PST officer stops were lawful – a difference of 17 and 28 percentage points, respectfully.
- Regardless of the unit, nearly all Terry stops were constitutional if based on a complainant/witness (100% lawful) or radio run (94% lawful). Conversely, only 65% of self-initiated stops were lawful.
- Patrol officers primarily conducted stops based on radio runs (68%). However, NST and PST officers overwhelmingly conducted self-initiated stops (70% and 77%, respectively).
- Where stop reports or body-worn camera videos identified race, over 90% of the individuals stopped were Black or Hispanic. Where gender was indicated, 97% of individuals stopped were male. In total, 89% of the encountered individuals were Black or Hispanic males.
- Despite high rates of unlawful stops, frisks, and searches, command-level supervisors of NST, PST, and patrol officers only determined that 1% each of stops, frisks, and searches were unlawful.
- The Department must improve Fourth Amendment compliance levels. NST and PST units must be better-supervised, and supervisors must ensure their units’ stops, frisks and searches are constitutionally compliant.
