The NYPD has at least one friend on the panel of law professors tapped to monitor the department’s use of stop and frisk.
Alafair Burke, a former prosecutor in Oregon who is now a professor at Hofstra, said Thursday she’s a big backer of the law that lets police stop and frisk suspects – and has even trained cops how to effectively use the tactic.
“Police have the right to stop and frisk people if they have reasonable suspicion. That’s the law and I’m a strong supporter of that law,” Burke told The Post, referring to the 1968 Supreme Court decision in Terry v. Ohio ruling that stop and frisks were legal.
“It’s been the law for a long time and I‘ve spent a lot of time teaching police about it,” said Burke, 43, a Florida native who grew up in Kansas and has also taught at Fordham’s law school.
The East Village resident said she hopes her experience as a prosecutor working closely with cops will make her an effective player on the 13-member “Academic Advisory Council” appointed by federal Judge Shira Scheindlin.
“A huge part of my professional background is working with police and prosecutors,” said Burke, who is also a highly praised author of crime novels. “People who know me would say that I have worked well with the police throughout my career.”
Asked if she had an opinion of the judge’s decision striking down the practice, Burke replied, “Yeah. But I’m not going to get into that [because] I don’t know what I’m being asked to do yet.”
Burke said she’s worked with police departments in Portland and other Oregon communities when she was a deputy district attorney there from 1995 to 1999.
The Stanford Law School grad has also worked with agencies in Texas and elsewhere training cops and prosecutors “to make sure that the stops are effective and lawful.”
As a deputy DA, Burke also spent two years assigned to a police precinct house in Portland as a liaison to the department.
While she’s never worked with the NYPD, she has developed sources in the department who help her with her books.
The daughter of renowned crime writer James Burke, she has penned five novels featuring the fictional NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and others about an Oregon prosecutor.
”My sources try to keep me plugged in. We have a very cordial working relationship,” Burke said.
She said she did not know Scheindlin before the judge emailed her a couple of weeks back asking her to be part of the council, and that the only communication she’s had with other members to date was about possible dates for their first meeting.
“She didn’t tell me how I was on her radar,” Burke said, and Scheindlin has declined to comment on her decision.
Burke accepted, she said, because “I thought my background could make me helpful to that process and I didn’t want to say no.”
Burke laughed at being referred to as an “Ivory Tower egghead” in Thursday’s Post. “I try very hard not to be an egghead,” she quipped.
The panel will be headed up by Brooklyn Law School professor I. Bennett Capers, a former federal prosecutor, who didn’t return messages seeking comment.
The other 11 academics – none of whom has any law enforcement experience – either declined comment or did not return messages seeking comment.
Police sources were angered by the new layer of oversight, which comes on top of the already-named monitor and facilitator Scheindlin appointed to oversee the department.