Flatbush Activists Want to Know Where the NYPD is Stopping Brooklyn Drivers

BROOKLYN, NY — Community activist organization Equality for Flatbush (E4F) wants Brooklyn drivers to document when and where they've been stopped by the NYPD.

The group, which describes itself as an "anti-police repression" outfit, has launched an online survey where drivers can record where they were stopped, whether the NYPD had set up a checkpoint, and if the officers were in uniform, among other information.

Imani Henri, a lead organizer with E4F, said the goal is to assess whether the NYPD is disproportionately targeting certain communities for traffic enforcement.

The group launched a similar survey in 2014 focused on police checkpoints. Henri said that effort followed community reports of an increase in such checkpoints targeting drivers heading into Flatbush.

The group never released the results of the survey. But Henri said that over time, E4F activists came to understand that they needed to collect general traffic stop data, not just checkpoint information. Data was also needed from neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn, he said, in order to establish whether enforcement disparities existed.

Henri said he firmly believes the NYPD is disproportionately focusing its traffic enforcement efforts on "black and brown drivers" in gentrifying communities.

"It's an extra tax to live in their own neighborhood," he said of such residents.

A 2014 review of NYPD ticketing data conducted by WNYC showed that tickets went up across the city during the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2013. The increase was linked to the beginning of the city's Vision Zero pedestrian safety initiative.

The data WNYC analyzed, however, did show that the increases weren't equal everywhere. Ticketing was up 3.3 percent in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, for example, while it had increased close to 40 percent in sections of Flatbush. And the NYPD had written 26 percent fewer tickets in Red Hook, Gowanus and BoCoCa during the period in question.

Henri said the E4F's survey will remain open for the foreseeable future. The group has yet to decide how it will use the information it collects, he said.

Photo at top courtesy of André Gustavo Stumpf/Flickr