NYPD Ordered To Make Retrieving Phones, Cash After Arrests Easier

NEW YORK, NY — NYPD cops took Victor Encarnacion's iPhone when they arrested him in November 2014, calling it evidence in the criminal case against him. It took nearly a year after those charges were dismissed for Encarnacion to get the cellphone back, according to a 2016 lawsuit he filed against the city.

A Manhattan federal judge approved a settlement in that lawsuit Monday, requiring the NYPD and the Bronx District Attorney's Office to streamline the process through which New Yorkers retrieve their phones, money and other property that police seize as evidence.

The settlement forces police and prosecutors to follow the legally mandated procedures for returning property after years of dysfunction caused New Yorkers to lose valuable items and plenty of cash, according to the Bronx Defenders, the legal-services group representing Encarnacion and two other plaintiffs in the case.

"Before this lawsuit, property seized at an arrest fell into a black hole of red tape — even when someone’s charges were later dismissed," Niji Jain, a Bronx Defenders attorney who worked on the lawsuit, said in a statement. "This dysfunctional and unconstitutional practice disproportionately harms the low-income communities that are targeted by broken windows policing and least able to afford these costly consequences."

The Police Department pledged to give vouchers for any seized property to everyone it arrests and to only require one form of identification to get it back, rather than two. The Bronx DA's office promised to make it easier to ask for one's property back and to train prosecutors to respond to such requests within 15 days, as the law requires.

The city will also give the plaintiffs — Encarnacion, Kaleb Hagos and and Kenneth Clavasquin — $10,000 in damages and pay their legal bills.

The NYPD can keep property from people it arrests as evidence of the crime with which they're charged. Under city law, the department is supposed to give criminal defendants a voucher for that property, but is "governed by statute as to when it can release arrest evidence to a claimant," NYPD spokesman Lt. John Grimpel said in a statement.

Prosecutors have to give permission for the NYPD to return the property, and must approve or reject requests to do so within 15 days. The NYPD requires a voucher, identification and a release from the DA's office to get property back.

In practice, the NYPD often failed to give vouchers for seized property and Bronx prosecutors almost never responded to requests to release the items, even after cases were closed, Encarnacion's lawsuit alleged. The Police Department declined to give back items without a release from the DA's office, even if the person had asked for one and gotten no response, the lawsuit says.

In some cases, the NYPD would keep people's IDs as evidence, meaning they would have to authorize someone else to get their identification back, the Bronx Defenders said.

The settlement requires the NYPD and the Bronx DA's office to train cops and prosecutors on the procedure and provide better oversight to ensure it's followed. District Attorney Darcel Clark joined the settlement voluntarily after creating a dedicated unit in 2016 to handle property requests.

The Police Department has "clarified" its internal policies on property seizures and will ensure that both cops and civilians know how the process is supposed to work, the city Law Department said. The NYPD has also agreed not to seize identification as evidence in most cases.

"We are pleased with the resolution of this case," Nick Paolucci, a Law Department spokesman, said in a statement. "The settlement recognizes the significant improvements made by the Bronx DA and the NYPD to ensure accountability, proper vouchering and timely responses to requests for property as required under the existing law."

(Lead image: An NYPD station in Times Square in Manhattan. Photo by David Allen/Patch)