Judge denies challenge to law on police lawsuits

TOM McELROY | Updated 15 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Wednesday denied a legal challenge by two police unions to a New York City law that eases the way for racial profiling claims.

"Local Law 71 does not prevent police officers from continuing to stop, question, and frisk while utilizing their training and experience," wrote state Supreme Court Justice Anil Singh. "The law only seeks to deter the use of attributes such as race as the sole basis for an investigatory stop which is antithetical to our constitution and values," Singh wrote.

The 2013 law relaxes some legal standards for claims that the stop and frisk tactic or other police techniques were used in a discriminatory way. The measure reflected concerns about the New York Police Department's use of the stop and frisk tactic and its extensive surveillance of Muslims disclosed in stories by The Associated Press.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Sergeants Benevolent Association wanted the law struck down. They said it intruded on state criminal law and that it had a troublingly vague definition of profiling: using race or certain other characteristics "as the determinative factor" in policing.

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