March 7, 2024, New York – In response to the governor of New York’s announcement of a five-point “subway safety” plan, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:

The Center for Constitutional Rights unequivocally condemns Governor Kathy Hochul's recently announced five-point plan aimed at escalating police presence on the MTA, which echoes troublingly the unconstitutional practices that led to our landmark case Floyd v. City of New York.

The proposed plan comes on the heels of the ten-year anniversary of the ruling in our case, which found the NYPD’s implementation of the highly controversial stop-and-frisk practices unconstitutional. The proposed measures not only raise serious legal concerns but also evoke disturbing parallels with the stop-and-frisk practices brought to light in Floyd.

Just last month, the court-appointed monitor found that the NYPD has not resolved its racist policing problem, noting in a public letter to the court that “racial disparities remain with respect to frisks and searches.” 

Hochul's five-point plan, which includes deployment of 1,000 additional state officers to support the NYPD’s “random” bag check program, underscores the core issues addressed in Floyd v. City of New York, where the court found the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices to be racially discriminatory and unconstitutional under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Governor Hochul’s proposal not only raises constitutional concerns, but also funnels additional funds to a disproportionate $106.7 billion policing system that last year spent more than $700 million on overtime and over $80 million on misconduct lawsuit settlements. 

From 2022 to 2023, NYPD overtime pay for extra officers in the subway went from $4 million to $155 million, showing that pouring more money into policing is not the solution to keeping New Yorkers safe. 

This funding should be used to invest in housing, healthcare, and other community needs.