By Bruce Golding
The New York Post
NEW YORK — An “unprecedented” court hearing begins today into allegations that cops have been unlawfully stopping minorities outside thousands of low-income apartment buildings in The Bronx.
Plaintiffs in the case are seeking a court order limiting enforcement of a 1991 anti-crime program called “Operation Clean Halls.”
Under the program — which targets illegal drug use and sales — landlords can ask the NYPD to patrol hallways and stairwells in search of nonresidents loitering there.
The Manhattan federal-court suit alleges cops are so “overzealous” that tenants have to carry ID just to do their laundry or visit neighbors.
Court papers also claim that legitimate guests are often arrested “because they only know their friend’s first name or nickname or know the apartment only by the location, rather than the number.”
The plaintiffs’ witnesses are expected to include a Columbia professor who has analyzed stop-and-frisk data and a representative of the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, which has refused to prosecute some trespassing cases without first interviewing the arresting officers.
It’s one of three pending court challenges to the stop-and-frisk program, which Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (right) credit with reducing crime.
All three cases are being overseen by Judge Shira Scheindlin, who recently ruled the program’s effectiveness is irrelevant to its constitutionality.
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