NYPD Giving Out ‘Receipts' for Street Stops: Reports

NYPD cops are now issuing “receipts” any time they stop someone on the street, according to several published reports.

The Daily News reports that the department began requiring officers to issue tickets every time they stop and question or search a person but don’t arrest them.

The move, which comes out of a court decision outlawing the controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy of the department under former Commissioner Ray Kelly, is already drawing ire from the department’s rank-and-file union, the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association.

“Instead of improving community relations, these receipts will accelerate an increase in crime and disorder, which will damage the city’s economic health while hurting those crime-ridden communities who need our protection the most," said Patrick Lynch, the president of the PBA.

The short “What Is A Stop?” receipts were first issued on Sept. 21 and feature six reasons why an officer may have stopped a person. Officers must write their name, precinct and badge number on each slip.

According to the News, an internal department memo ordered officers not to stop a suspect for making “a furtive movement”, being in a high-crime area or being “members of a racial or ethnic group that appears more frequently in local crime suspect data.”

The News reports that the receipts come at time when streets stops are on the decline. At the height of stop-and-frisk in 2011,  NYPD officers made nearly 700,000 stops; this year, the department is on pace for just 42,000.

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