Jacqueline Gosdigian, Supervising Policy Counsel testified before The New York City Council Committee on Public Safety Oversight Hearing on the NYPD’s Use of Stop-and-Frisk and Other Investigative Encounters.

"The Federal Monitor report indicates the NYPD is moving in the wrong direction, conducting more unlawful stops, more unlawful frisks and more unlawful searches. The gang narrative is used to justify even more aggressive stops, summonses, arrests, and surveillance than before Stop-and-Frisk was declared unconstitutional. In the last several years thousands of New Yorkers have been swept up in so called "gang raids" or "takedowns", nearly all of them Black or Latine. The City Council must move to eliminate the Gang Database and pass Intro 798 which would abolish the NYPD Gang Database altogether."


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“Despite a federal court ruling NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practice unconstitutional, the legacy of racist and abusive policing tactics remains. The NYPD’s ‘Criminal Group Database,’ otherwise known as the ‘Gang’ database, leverages surveillance technology to racially profile New Yorkers and justify more aggressive and unlawful stops, frisks, and searches. The City Council should reject stop-and-frisk policing by passing Intro 798 to abolish the NYPD’s Gang Database once and for all.”

Read the full testimony here.

View a clip of the testimony here.