Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. is sick of cleaning up the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk mess.
Vance, addressing a meeting of the 20th Precinct Community Council on the Upper West Side Monday night, said the policy has been a burden on his office.
“I think there are strategies that we can reduce the numbers [of stops],” the district attorney said.
“If the ends don’t justify the means, if there is abuse of it, we may, indeed, have to prosecute those cases,” he added, referring to cops who commit perjury by misrepresenting stops.
Vance also said he has prosecuted police officers who have lied under oath in cases of stop-and-frisk. He noted that only a small percentage of stops end in arrest in Manhattan.
Of those cases, he said, some are dismissed because they’re unconstitutional.
“If we don’t feel it’s constitutional, for whatever reason, if the stop is unconstitutional, we may have to, and we have dismissed cases, and we do every day, actually,” Vance said.
NYPD spokesman John McCarthy declined to comment on Vance’s statements.
In August, Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the NYPD was unconstitutionally stopping minorities and appointed an outside monitor to rein in officers.
Scheindlin also directed the NYPD to adopt reforms, including a one-year pilot program to outfit some patrol cops with video cameras to be worn on their bodies.
She also tapped prominent lawyer Peter Zimroth to serve as an independent monitor to oversee the changes and develop more through town-hall-style meetings across the city.
Then, just last week, Scheindlin appointed 13 professors to assist in overseeing the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk.