Until recently, if you were stopped and frisked, arrested or issued a summons, then had all charges against you dropped, your name and address would go into a big database the NYPD could use against you in future investigations. Now, thanks to a lawsuit from the New York Civil Liberties Union, that’s no longer the case. The city settled with the NYCLU this week, agreeing to cease use of the database in this manner and clear all preexisting information for people whose charges were dropped.
“Though much still needs to be done, this settlement is an important step towards curbing the impact of abusive stop and frisk practices,” NYCLU associate legal director Christopher Dunn said in a statement after the settlement. “It was wrong and illegal for the police department to be keeping these names and addresses in the stop-and-frisk database, and this settlement puts an end to that practice.”
