Cops can still stop suspects based on a description that includes race and they can still broadcast descriptions that include it, Chief of Department Philip Banks said in a memo to all NYPD commands.
Banks issued the clarification to explain how new racial profiling laws, which took effect last week, will affect the department’s stop and frisk program.
“It is important to note that local law 71 does not prohibit an officer from considering these demographic factors in deciding whether to initiate law enforcement action,” he wrote in the four-page memo on biased-based profiling.
“It would be unlawful to stop or otherwise engage that individual if the deciding factor for doing so was that he/she matched only the race of the person described in the radio run,” Banks explained in the memo entitled “Finest Message.”
The directive also reminds cops that they will be supported by the department in any related lawsuits the same way they are in other civil suits filed against them for what they do in the scope of their duties while on the job.
The memo also clarifies the department’s existing policies against racial profiling, which is addressed in the patrol guide.
New York’s top cop said the memo was issued to dispel any confusion. That’s because the law, before it was amended, would have left cops open to lawsuits. In its final form, it says race cannot be the “determining factor” and NYPD policies can’t have a “disparate impact” on specific groups or classes of people.
“Police officers will always do their job and will respond to situations,” Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “We just put out a Finest Message in an attempt to explain what the law says, in essence, the new classes of individuals they have created, being a member of them should not be the determining factor in stopping someone. We are trying to get that information out so there is more sunshine on the process.”