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In 1994, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton adopted policing strategies based on the unproven and controversial broken windows theory, an ideologically-driven" /> <meta name="generator" content="Drupal 7 (https://www.drupal.org)" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.changethenypd.org/issue" /> <link rel="shortlink" href="https://www.changethenypd.org/node/2" /> <title>The Issue | Communities United for Police Reform</title> <meta name="MobileOptimized" content="width"> <meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="true"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">  <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.changethenypd.org/sites/default/files/css/css_kShW4RPmRstZ3SpIC-ZvVGNFVAi0WEMuCnI0ZkYIaFw.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.changethenypd.org/sites/default/files/css/css_CfzFN-9P4Jy_iKL2OMPwUG4XKOMss0T3XkNEQKIqNyQ.css" media="all" /> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" 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</ul> </div> <div class="panel-pane pane-block pane-search-form" > <form action="/issue" method="post" id="search-block-form" accept-charset="UTF-8"><div><div class="container-inline"> <h2 class="element-invisible">Search form</h2> <div class="form-item form-type-textfield form-item-search-block-form"> <label class="element-invisible" for="edit-search-block-form--2">Search </label> <input title="Enter the terms you wish to search for." type="text" id="edit-search-block-form--2" name="search_block_form" value="" size="15" maxlength="128" class="form-text" /> </div> <div class="form-actions form-wrapper" id="edit-actions"><input type="submit" id="edit-submit" name="op" value="Search" class="form-submit" /></div><input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" value="form-RzVL4-ntyj22lh3V1cDgwBYQ9go0js0jlEFLmemeKXw" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" value="search_block_form" /> </div> </div></form> </div> <div class="panel-pane pane-custom pane-2" id="donate-button" > <a href="https://northstarfund.org/give/donate/donate-to-communities-united-for-police-reform/">Donate</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </header> <div id="main"> <div id="content" class="column" role="main"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation"><h2 class="element-invisible">You are here</h2><ol><li><a href="/">Home</a> › </li></ol></nav> <a id="main-content"></a> <h1 class="title" id="page-title">The Issue</h1> <div class="panel-display boxton clearfix " > <div class="boxton-container boxton-content boxton-content-region panel-panel"> <article class="node-2 node node-page view-mode-full clearfix" about="/issue" typeof="foaf:Document"> <header> <span property="dc:title" content="The Issue" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span><span property="sioc:num_replies" content="0" datatype="xsd:integer" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span> </header> <div class="field-body"> <h2><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);">THE PROBLEM</span></h2> <p style="font-size: 13.008px;"><strong>Discriminatory and abusive policing in New York City remains a serious problem after decades of out-of-control policies and practices that are unaccountable to residents of the city.</strong> In 1994, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton adopted policing strategies based on the unproven and controversial broken windows theory, an ideologically-driven philosophy arising from a fellow of the conservative Manhattan Institute.</p> <p style="font-size: 13.008px;"><strong>Broken windows policing, </strong>which promotes hyper-aggressive enforcement of minor non-violent infractions by certain people deemed to reflect disorder,<strong> has perpetuated the abusive and discriminatory treatment of entire communities. Yet, it has continued to dramatically expand.</strong> This has resulted in policing that undermines public safety and trust including biased stop-and-frisk abuses, unconstitutional searches, racially disparate marijuana arrests and summonses, discriminatory profiling and harassment, and the use of excessive force. These NYPD policies and practices often <strong>aggressively target and disproportionaly impact communities of color, including: young people, homeless people, LGBTQ people, people with cognitive and psychiatric disabilities, immigrants, women, and Muslim communities.</strong></p> <p style="font-size: 13.008px;">The abuses in daily police interactions that occur with impunity normalize a dangerous standard of disrespect within communities that leads to escalating abuse and violence. The lack of accountability for such abuses further undermines public integrity, far too often leaving New Yorkers increasingly vulnerable to police abuse and violence and without safety in their own neighborhoods. Even in the extreme but far too common incidents when officers brutalize or unjustly kill New Yorkers, there is rarely meaningful and timely accountability by the NYPD.</p> <ul style="margin-left: 40px; font-size: 13.008px;"> <li> <p><strong>NYPD stop-and-frisk abuses</strong> were ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in 2013, and remain the subject of a court monitor and needed reforms.  Though the overall number of reported stops has declined, an ongoing court-ordered reform process to overhaul this product of broken windows policing continues while stops persist in being abusive and disproportiontely impacting Black and Latino communities.</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Discriminatory broken windows policing</strong> disproportionately targets certain communities with arrests or summonses for low-level infractions—even when not resulting in criminal convictions, enforcement for violations as trivial as riding a bike on the sidewalk (or other violations also not equally enforced in neighborhoods) can trigger severe consequences—(job loss, eviction, deportation of permanent residents who are not citizens, etc.).</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Arrests, abuses and brutality </strong>can result from civilians even requesting the reason for police stopping them in the first place, the identity of the officer, or exercising their Constitutional rights</p> </li> </ul> <p style="font-size: 13.008px;">These policing practices create and foster an atmosphere of fear and mistrust of the police, while violating New Yorkers’ human and constitutional rights, and systemically perpetuate inequality in our city. <strong>This is not an acceptable approach to public safety or progress in New York.</strong></p> <h2><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);">THE SOLUTION</span></h2> <p style="font-size: 13.008px;"><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">New York City needs an approach to public safety that is based on respect for and holistic investment in communities, not on police targeting and harassment.</span></p> <ul style="margin-left: 40px; font-size: 13.008px;"> <li> <p><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong>Investment and Respect</strong></span>: We need public safety practices that are based on investment in and respect for all communities in New York City. Every New Yorker deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, not reflexively as suspects in their own neighborhoods. Investment in local infrastructure and communities' well-being is a pre-requisite to meaningful community safety.</p> </li> <li> <p><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong>Safety & Human Rights</strong></span>: Community members deserve to feel safe and have their rights protected and upheld by law enforcement, not violated.</p> </li> <li> <p><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong>Accountability</strong></span>: The NYPD must act in a just, fair and safe way that is accountable to local communities when doing their jobs. Police are not above the law, and therefore must be held accountable for their actions with timely, meaningful consequences for misconduct. There should be zero tolerance for abuse of power and brutality by NYPD officers.</p> </li> <li> <p><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong>Transparency</strong></span>: Transparency is critical to public accountability and trust.  New Yorkers deserve a transparent police department both in everyday interactions and in the public reporting of their activity and data.</p> </li> </ul> <p style="font-size: 13.008px;"><strong>Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an <a href="http://changethenypd.org/campaign">unprecedented campaign</a> that is working to end discriminatory policing in New York. </strong>We are advancing policies that protect the safety and rights of all New Yorkers to create true community safety. We are i<span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">n the courts </span><strong style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);">fighting to hold police accountable</span></strong><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"> for violating New Yorkers' constitutional rights. We are <span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em; color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong>training communities to know their rights</strong></span><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"> and to observe and document police abuse. We <span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">engage in </span></strong><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"><strong><strong>strat</strong></strong></span></span><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em; color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong>egic direct action, organizing and civic engagement</strong></span><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"> to build the power of communities most impacted by abusive policing. And we are in </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">Albany and at City Hall </span><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em; color: rgb(102, 0, 51);"><strong>demanding law and policy changes that advance police accountability</strong></span><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"> to improve safety for communities. </span></p> <h2><strong style="font-size: 13.008px;"><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="http://changethenypd.org/take-action">Join our powerful movement to #changetheNYPD</a>!</span></strong></h2> </div> <div class="service-links"><ul class="links"><li class="service-links-facebook first"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A//www.changethenypd.org/issue&t=The%20Issue" title="Share on Facebook" class="service-links-facebook" rel="nofollow"><img typeof="foaf:Image" 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