Cops now required to issue "receipts" to anyone they stop

After a recommendation from the NYPD's federal monitor, New York City cops are now required to give "receipts" to anyone they stop on the street.

The receipts, given to anyone stopped but not arrested, will include the officer's name, reason the person is being stopped and an explanation of the legal authority cops have to make stops in the first place, the New York Daily News reports. Police can mark one of six reasons for the stop, including concealing or possessing a weapon, engaging in a drug transaction and matching a specific suspect description. An internal NYPD memo that went out September 21, the day the receipts went into effect, also noted that police can no longer stop people simply for "making a furtive movement or being in a high crime area" or because "they are members of a racial or ethnic group that appears more frequently in local crime suspect data.” In other words, no more racial profiling. 

Of course, people have a lot of feelings about this. Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the memo points are “important first steps in reducing illegal and discriminatory stops, while the new receipt will improve accountability and hopefully de-escalate tensions.” However, Patrick Lynch, head of the NYPD union Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said "Instead of improving community relations, these receipts will accelerate an increase in crime and disorder, which will damage the city’s economic health while hurting those crime-ridden communities who need our protection the most."

There's a lot of drama in de Blasio's New York, but the controversial practice of stop-and-frisks is already drastically down—on pace for 42,000 stops this year compared with the 2011 high of nearly 700,000.