By John Riley
Newsday
NEW YORK — New York City lawyers Friday filed legal papers telling a federal appeals court that police unions should not be allowed to intervene in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s planned settlement of a lawsuit over the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices.
“The public interest favors the expeditious resolution of these cases and implementation of the reform process,” top city lawyer Zachary Carter told the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. “Allowing police unions to intervene at this stage would frustrate this interest.”
The move was expected. De Blasio said two weeks ago that he had agreed with plaintiffs who said the NYPD was behaving unconstitutionally and should accept a federal court ruling last year that named a monitor to oversee reforms in training, supervision and discipline.
The Bloomberg administration had been trying to overturn the ruling and had supported involvement by the unions, which want to keep the appeal going despite de Blasio’s wishes.
The city has asked the appeals court to return the case to trial court, where the settlement can be formalized. The Second Circuit asked for input from parties to the case on whether the unions should be allowed to intervene before agreeing to send the case back.
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