Temitayo Fagbenle investigates policing tactics in public housing buildings on the Lower East Side of NYC. She spoke with people in the neighborhood and was surprised to learn how often young black and Latino men are stopped and frisked on the streets.
Then Temitayo dug in deeper and talked to lawyers from the NAACP and the Legal Aid Society. They told her that people aren’t just stopped on the street, police also do vertical patrols inside the housing projects—which are floor by floor sweeps to curb criminal activity.
They’re suing the NYPD and the City of New York because they say these vertical patrols are infringing on people’s constitutional rights. Police officers are stopping and frisking people in their own homes and often end up stopping and arresting innocent, law abiding residents as well as their visitors and friends for trespassing.
Temitayo doesn’t have to deal with the police doing vertical patrols in her home and she thinks public housing residents shouldn’t have to either.