Metro

Stop-and-frisk goes on trial

The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics are coming under the gun.

An “unprecedented” court hearing begins today into allegations that cops have been unlawfully stopping minorities outside thousands of low-income apartment buildings in The Bronx.

Plaintiffs in the case are seeking a court order limiting enforcement of a 1991 anti-crime program called “Operation Clean Halls.”

Under the program — which targets illegal drug use and sales — landlords can ask the NYPD to patrol hallways and stairwells in search of nonresidents loitering there.

The Manhattan federal-court suit alleges cops are so “overzealous” that tenants have to carry ID just to do their laundry or visit neighbors.

Court papers also claim that legitimate guests are often arrested “because they only know their friend’s first name or nickname or know the apartment only by the location, rather than the number.”

The plaintiffs’ witnesses are expected to include a Columbia professor who has analyzed stop-and-frisk data and a representative of the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, which has refused to prosecute some trespassing cases without first interviewing the arresting officers.

Several people who got busted for allegedly trespassing outside “Clean Halls” buildings are also expected to take the witness stand.

New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer Alexis Karteron said the hearing — which is expected to last more than a week — “presents an important opportunity to end an aspect of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program that has plagued New Yorkers of color for far too long.”

“We will demonstrate that police officers are unlawfully stopping and arresting people on suspicion of trespassing simply because they happen to be in public areas near Clean Halls buildings,” Karteron added.

It’s one of three pending court challenges to the stop-and-frisk program, which Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (right) credit with reducing crime.

All three cases are being overseen by Judge Shira Scheindlin, who recently ruled the program’s effectiveness is irrelevant to its constitutionality.