Federal judge bars cops from using 'stop and frisk' on some Bronx residents

A Manhattan federal judge Tuesday ordered the NYPD to stop what she called the unconstitutional practice of stopping people for trespass outside private Bronx apartment buildings.

In a narrowly tailored ruling, Judge Shira Scheindlin said the NYPD had been indifferent to evidence of the unlawfulness in the way the Trespass Affidavit Program, or TAP, was being administered.

She also criticized the NYPD's training of officers, saying a recent training video misstated the law on the department's "stop and frisk" policy. Scheindlin proposed the NYPD tighten its supervision and revise its training materials.

"While it may be difficult to say where, precisely, to draw the line between constitutional and unconstitutional police encounters, such a line exists, and the NYPD has systematically crossed it when making trespass stops outside [TAP] buildings in the Bronx," Scheindlin said.

Under TAP, owners of Bronx buildings allow officers to patrol in and around private dwellings.