Tenants’ Class Action Seeks to End NYPD’s “Vertical Sweeps” of Public Housing Buildings
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Cara Buckley
Source: “Lawsuit Takes Aim at Trespassing Arrests in New York Public Housing,” The New York Times
Date: January 26, 2010
The New York Times states: “The relationship between the New York police and public housing residents has long been uneasy, but according to a lawsuit filed against the city and its housing authority this week, it is growing far worse, with many innocent people, including residents, ending up arrested on trespass charges that were later dismissed. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, claims that public housing tenants and their visitors are subject to police aggression and unwarranted trespass arrests, especially during so-called vertical sweeps, when officers patrol buildings floor by floor. Sixteen plaintiffs were named in the class-action suit, which was filed by the Legal Aid Society, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. The chief spokesman for the New York police, Paul J. Browne, said officers used the trespassing statute to prevent nonresidents with ill intent, like drug dealers, from loitering in buildings. He also said the police presence in public housing developments afforded residents ‘a measure of safety that residents of doorman buildings enjoy throughout the city’ . . . . According to Johanna Steinberg, assistant counsel for the Legal Defense Fund, the number of trespassing arrests in public housing rose to 5,841 in 2008, from 4,275 in 2004, an increase of roughly 37 percent . . . . William Gibney, director of the special litigation unit for the Legal Aid Society, said, ‘It’s been one of the most frustrating issues for our attorneys in criminal defense. They have seen innocent person after innocent person arrested and put through the system on trespass charges, when the arrests were entirely not justified’ . . . . Sheila Stainback, a spokeswoman for the New York City Housing Authority, said her agency had started addressing residents’ concerns, and last year formed a task force, consisting of residents, police officers and housing authority representatives . . . . Ms. Stainback . . . noted that crime rates had dropped significantly in public housing developments, to the great relief of many tenants, which she attributed in part to the presence of police.”