New York Police Roll Out Stop-And-Frisk ‘Receipts’

The New York Police Department has formally introduced the “receipt” cops will be required to issue when they stop-and-frisk people in the street, as part of the city’s increasing oversight of police.

Police will be required to give the “What Is A Stop?” slip to those who are stopped but not arrested, the New York Daily News reports. On the receipt, police officers will have to write their name and explain the reason for the stop—for example, if the person was near a crime scene, acting as a lookout, or matching a specific suspect description. A Sept. 21 internal NYPD memo also underscores that police will no longer able to stop-and-frisk a suspect merely for making a furtive movement or being in a high crime area.

The changes are “important first steps in reducing illegal and discriminatory stops, while the new receipt will improve accountability and hopefully de-escalate tensions,” said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Patrick Lynch, head of the largest NYPD union, called the new paperwork “another nail in the coffin of proactive policing” and said that the receipts “will accelerate an increase in crime and disorder.”

[New York Daily News]