Court Monitoring Project.
Through careful observation at New York City’s arraignment courts where all people that the NYPD has arrested appear, PROP gains knowledge about current NYPD policies and practices.
Through the Court Monitoring Project, PROP identifies the most common arrests brought to the courts by the NYPD – collecting this information helps us accurately assess the extent to which the NYPD engages in racist, abusive, and counterproductive practices.
What is Court Monitoring?
PROP staff, interns and volunteers sit in on proceedings at the different arraignment courts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. During court visits we observe multiple court proceedings and record the relevant information about each case.
Our court monitoring also includes speaking with both lawyers and defendants. Hearing from people directly involved in the criminal legal system gives us a better understanding of the repercussions that being charged with a low-level, non-violent offense can have on a person’s life.
Read a New York Times article about the Court Monitoring Project.
Anyone interested in joining PROP’s Court Monitoring work, should contact prop@policereformorganizingproject.org
Court Monitoring Reports:
Using data and stories from its Court Monitoring work, PROP regularly publishes reports about the NYPD’s discriminatory and abusive arrest practices. Here are several examples of our 16 court monitoring reports:
Its Not The Personnel, It’s The Policy (2024) -- As recounted on p. 6, from January through June 2024, PROP representatives observed 705 arraignment cases, 642, 90.9%, involving NYers of color. Adding these numbers to the findings from our 4 previous court monitoring reports reveals that during Mayor Eric Adams’ first 2 and 1/2 years in office, of the 2,252 total cases observed, 2,081 (nearly 92%) involved New Yorkers of color.
They Are Profiling Us (2024) - From July 2023 through December 2023, PROP representatives observed 297 arraignments, 279, or 94 %, of which involved NYers of color. When compiling all our court observations from January 2022 through December 2023, Eric Adams' first two years in office, the document reports that of 1,567 cases seen, 1,440 or nearly 92%, involved NYers of color. These findings demonstrate again the racist and relentless nature of NYPD arrest practices.
Everyday Harms (2023) - From January through June, 2023, PROP representatives observed 555 arraignment cases, 512, 92.2%, involving NYers of color. Our previously reported court monitoring findings for all of 2022 came to: of 715 cases observed, 649, 90.8%, involved NYers of color. Adding these numbers together produces this result covering Mayor Eric Adams’ first year and a half in office: out of a total of 1,270 cases that PROP has observed, 1.161, 91.4% involved NYers of color.
Racist & Relentless (2023) - The principal finding of Racist and Relentless is that during 2022, Mayor Adams' first year in office, PROP representatives observed 715 arraignments, 649 or 90.8% of which involved NYers of color. This finding documents again the racist and relentless nature of NYPD arrest practices.
Where’s the Outrage (2022) - From January 2022 through July 2022, PROP representatives visited arraignment courts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. They observed a total of 485 cases. Of the 485 cases observed, 439, or 90.5%, involved NYers of color.
Targeting Black New Yorkers (2019) - From July through December 2019, PROP representatives visited arraignment courts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. They observed a total of 547 cases. Of the 547 cases observed, 446, or 82%, involved NYers of color.