NYPD's specialized units conduct unconstitutional stops at higher rate, court monitor finds

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Specialized units in the NYPD continued to conduct unconstitutional stops, frisks and searches at higher rates than the rest of the department in 2025, missing nearly every benchmark set by the court-appointed monitor overseeing the department's stop-and-frisk practices, according to a report filed in federal court Monday.

Independent Monitor Mylan Denerstein's report focused on the department's Neighborhood Safety Teams, Community Response Teams and now-disbanded Public Safety Teams, specialized units that engage in proactive enforcement and conduct self-initiated stops rather than primarily responding to 911 calls.

The Neighborhood Safety Teams were created in 2022 under then-Mayor Eric Adams to focus on illegal gun enforcement in high-crime neighborhoods, according to the report. Community Response Teams were originally created to handle quality-of-life issues before their mission shifted toward proactive street stops resembling those of the other specialized units, the report said.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Mayor Zohran Mamdani kept on from the Adams administration, has kept both units.

Tisch disbanded the Public Safety Teams in November, moving some of their officers to the Neighborhood Safety Teams, according to the report.

The monitor’s report examined a sample of 603 stops by specialized-unit officers and found 17% were unlawful. Thirty-one percent of the units' frisks were unlawful, as were 38% of their searches. By comparison, officers assigned to routine patrol and other non-specialized units conducted unlawful stops, frisks and searches 6%, 17% and 21% of the time, respectively.

Ninety-one percent of the people stopped by specialized units were Black or Hispanic, the report found, and 88% were Black or Hispanic men.

Stops by specialized units also led to fewer arrests than stops by other units: about one in five, compared with more than four in 10 stops by other officers.

The monitor had directed the specialized units to reach 85% lawful compliance for stops, frisks and searches by the third quarter of 2025 and 90% by year's end. The units met the third-quarter target for stops, with 89.7% deemed lawful, but missed it for frisks and searches. In the fourth quarter, they failed to meet the 90% benchmark for all three types of encounters.

Denerstein also found the NYPD violated court orders by failing to audit stops by the citywide Community Response Team for roughly three years, beginning in March 2023. The lapse expanded in September 2025, when borough-based teams were consolidated and the department stopped auditing any Community Response Team stops. The NYPD resumed auditing the stops in March, according to the report.

The report also cited recurring boilerplate language in officers' stop reports, including phrases like "rectangular bulge," "L-shaped object" and "nervous manner." In several instances, the monitor found different officers on the same team producing similar narratives about different encounters that were reviewed by the same supervisor. When the same language appears in stops involving different circumstances, the report said, "it raises questions about the credibility of the stop report narrative."

The monitor's oversight stems from two federal class-action lawsuits that accused the NYPD of racially profiling New Yorkers of color through unconstitutional stops. Floyd v. City of New York resulted in a 2013 ruling finding the department's stop-and-frisk practices unconstitutional. A related case, Davis v. City of New York, was settled in 2015. Both remain under federal court supervision.

The Legal Aid Society and the Legal Defense Fund, which represent plaintiffs in the litigation, called on Mamdani to disband the units, saying they "continue in the footsteps of the notorious 'broken windows' street crime units."

"The NYPD's specialized units continue to illegally stop, frisk and invasively search New Yorkers at unacceptable rates substantially higher than those of regular patrol officers," said Karina Tefft, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society.

Tefft said the Mamdani administration "must take immediate action to end unconstitutional policing" by the units.

Mamdani did not campaign on disbanding the specialized units, though he pledged to overhaul other parts of the department, including the gang database and the Strategic Response Group.

Since taking office, advocates say he has stepped back from much of that criticism, seeking a middle ground on units and tactics he once vowed to end. He has signaled openness to the gang database he previously called a "vast dragnet" and has tempered his rhetoric on the Strategic Response Group. Tisch has publicly defended both.

An NYPD spokesperson did not address the specific issues raised in the report but said that the number of stops has dropped since the lawsuits. The spokesperson also acknowledged that more work is needed.

A spokesperson for Mamdani said that the administration is reviewing the report.

“The Mamdani administration believes that constitutional policing, justice and public safety must go hand in hand,” City Hall spokesperson Sam Raskin said in a statement. “Every New Yorker deserves to be treated fairly and lawfully by members of the NYPD.”

Denerstein set a new target requiring the specialized units ...