Editorial Note: This is "old news" but we include it here in the context of the recent England's street rebellion where harrassment by police has been cited as one of the many antecedents to the street rebellion. - LMB    

23 June 2011

Mayor Nutter and American Civil Liberties Union officials announced this week details of the settlement of a federal lawsuit over the use of stop-and-frisk searches by police.

The settlement announced at City Hall on Tuesday morning will change the way the Philadelphia police department “monitors, reviews and audits pedestrian detentions,” said a spokesman for Mayor Nutter.

According to the settlement, a court-appointed monitor will oversee city police officers’ use of stop-and-frisk searches. Authorities will also make sure the stops are made only when there is reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct. The city also agreed to pay a total of $115,000 to seven of the plaintiffs, plus legal costs.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed in November by the ACLU of Pennsylvania on behalf of eight men, including state Rep. Jewell Williams, who the suit says were subjected to illegal searches since the city started using “stop and frisk” — which has been a focal point of Nutter’s campaign to reduce violent crime since he took office in 2008.

The suit alleged that the policy of stop-and-frisk is violating the rights of Blacks and Latinos who have done nothing wrong. Many of the city’s law-abiding Black and Latino men believe they are being racially profiled by police under the stop-and-frisk policy. Considering the high number of stops and relatively low number of arrests, minority men have good reason to believe they are being targeted without cause.

According to the ACLU lawsuit, in 2009 police stopped 253,333 pedestrians, 72 percent of whom were African American. Only 8 percent of the stops led to an arrest, often for “criminal conduct that was entirely independent from the supposed reason for the stop.”

The settlement between the Nutter administration and ACLU underscores the need for a major overhaul of the city’s stop-and-frisk policy.

The police must be careful when hiring, training and disciplining personnel to ensure that police officers are not abusing stop-and-frisk searches. The city must be more vigilant in monitoring the policy and eliminating wrongdoing by police.

Source: Philadelphia Tribune