Our Mission & Focus
The Monitor Team works to ensure that the NYPD engages in constitutional stops, frisks, and searches.
The Monitor Team’s focus is on the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices, as well as its trespass enforcement. The Monitor Team regularly assesses the NYPD’s compliance and publicly files reports with the court detailing their findings.
Know Your Rights
When you are stopped, frisked, and/or searched by a New York City police officer, you have certain rights.
Who We Are
Latest Report
On January 20, 2026, the Monitor filed its Twenty-Eighth Report, a compliance snapshot of the NYPD’s stop, frisk, and search practices, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Highlights include the following:
- The Monitor’s audit showed that 86% of reported Terry stops, 69% of frisks during Terry stops, and 68% of searches reviewed for the first quarter of 2025 were lawful.
- Most NYPD commands do not have compliance rates for lawful stops, frisks, and searches above 85%. 81% of NYPD commands had a compliance rate above 85% for stops, 51% were above the threshold for frisks, and 41% were above the threshold for searches.
- Compliance remained weak for self-initiated stops, frisks, and searches. Only 75% of self-initiated stops, 58% of frisks during self-initiated stops, and 47% of searches during self-initiated stops were lawful; compared to 98%, 93%, and 81% of stops, frisks, and searches initiated by a 311 or 911 call.
- Underreporting remains a problem. Officers did not complete a stop report for 31% of stops in the audit. More encounters, however, were recorded by body-worn cameras in their entirety; 96% of encounters in the Monitor’s audit were recorded in full, compared to 82% of encounters in the first quarter of 2024.
- Reviewing supervisors rarely identified any stop, frisk, or search as unlawful. In the first quarter of 2024, reviewing supervisors found only 1% of stops, 6% of frisks, and 8% of reviewed searches to be unlawful–compared to 14%, 31%, and 32% as determined by the Monitor.
