Council Set to Override Racial Profiling Bill Veto

Brad Lander (C) City Council members and advocacy groups gathered on City Hall steps in Lower Manhattan on July 24. They publicly vowed to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto of a set of bills related to the city's controversial stop-and-frisk policy. (NTD Television)

NEW YORK—A City Council vote on the controversial New York Police Department practice known as stop, question, and frisk will be held on Thursday, Aug. 22. The City Council will be voting on a set of measures known collectively as the Community Safety Act (CSA). 

The CSA will allow those who have been the objects of stop and frisk to sue on the basis of racial discrimination. It will also install an inspector general for the NYPD. 

The Aug. 22 vote aims to override a July 24 mayoral veto of the CSA. 

The benefits and drawbacks of stop and frisk have been hotly contested in New York City and nationally throughout the summer. 

A decision handed down earlier this month by a federal judge in New York City on a years-long discrimination case over stop and frisk ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. 

Part of that decision included the appointment of a federal monitor and a ruling that the city’s stop-and-frisk policy violates the Fourth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.