NYCLU Sues Police Department

The New York Civil Liberties Union announced yesterday that it is suing the police department for access to a database that tracks its stop-and-frisk practices.

The police department has already released some information about police searches that shows an increase in stops. Police have also acknowledged that more than half of individuals stopped are African American.

The civil liberties group and the speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, have both previously asked the police department to release the raw data so that they may analyze individual circumstances of each stop.

In response to the lawsuit, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday that the policy think tank, RAND Corporation, would be releasing an analysis of the raw data soon.