Resource: NYCLU v. New York City Police Department (Seeking Access to NYPD Stop-And-Frisk Database Under Foil)

At issue in this case is whether the NYCLU is entitled, under the New York Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), to obtain from the New York City Police Department an electronic copy of an NYPD computer database containing information about hundreds of thousands of stops and frisk encounters between NYPD officers and members of the public. In July 2007, the NYCLU served the NYPD with a formal legal request to produce the database under FOIL. The department rejected the request at the end of August and denied the NYCLU's administrative appeal in October. The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 13, 2007. The NYCLU requested the information to allow for an independent analysis of the department's stop-and-frisk practices, which have been the subject of enormous controversy since the 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo.