A judge agreed today to hold off restricting the NYPD’s “stop-and-frisk” program until she decides what other measures are needed to prevent cops from “systemically” violating the rights of some Bronx apartment-dwellers and their visitors.
Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin had ordered the NYPD to “immediately cease” stopping people outside privately owned apartment buildings enrolled in the “Operation Clean Halls” anti-crime program unless cops had a “reasonable suspicion of trespass.”
But in response to a city request to stay her order pending appeal, Scheindlin said it “cannot be effectively implemented” without other “significant steps” to be determined later.
She also noted that “any unnecessary administrative costs imposed on the NYPD” before then could be “irreversible.”
Scheindlin refused, however, to delay a related trial in March over whether stop-and-frisk violates the constitutional rights of blacks and other minorities.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union — which represents plaintiffs in the “Clean Halls” case — said Scheindlin’s decision “may well expedite the final remedy process for dealing with the abuse of stop-and-frisk for all New Yorkers in a more efficient way.”
bruce.golding@nypost.com