NYC Antiviolence Project weighs in on report showing NYPD Neighborhood Safety Teams’ illegal actions
The report revealed that fewer than five weapons were recovered across 230 NST car stops, adding that any unconstitutional stop is unacceptable.
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Monday’s scathing report that said the NYPD’s Neighborhood Safety Teams are stopping, frisking, and searching too many people illegally has many wondering what needs to be done to keep city streets safe.
The federal monitor of the NYPD revealed that over half of stops made by the Neighborhood Safety Teams, better known as NST’s, in the Bronx’s 41st Precinct were illegal. It also showed an extreme discrepancy towards the searching of Black and Hispanic citizens – something the New York City Antiviolence Project says is nothing new.
MORE: Monitor's Audit of the NYPD's Neighborhood Safety Teams
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,” said Beverly Tillery, member of the New York City Antiviolence Project. “Black, brown, queer and low-income people are always going to be disproportionately targeted by the police.”
In 2020, then-mayor Bill DeBlasio disbanded the NYPD’s anti-crime units amid national protests against police violence. Mayor Eric Adams brought them back under the new name of Neighborhood Safety Teams, promising that officers would undergo training, adding the following statement, in part:
“Following the creation of the Neighborhood Safety Teams in March 2022, shootings have consistently fallen and were down by double digits last year, and that trend has continued into 2023.”
The report revealed that fewer than five weapons were recovered across 230 NST car stops, adding that any unconstitutional stop is unacceptable.
The Antiviolence Project says this form of policing will only hurt communities and weaken their trust of the police.
“People feel like the police do not care about them,” said Tillery. “While that is certainly not everybody, it’s enough people in our community that we have to pay attention to that.”
The NYPD told News 12 that they disagree with the report’s conclusions, adding that there are multiple layers of oversight across the city’s NST’s – oversight that the report deemed inadequate.
