With the NYPD under fire for its harsh treatment and seemingly indiscriminate arrests of Occupy Wall Street protesters, Ailsa Chang’s two-part series for WNYC into alleged illegal searches by NYPD officers seems timely once again. In April, a WNYC investigation unearthed evidence that police officers appeared to be using illegal searches to arrest people for the possession of miniscule amounts of marijuana without probable cause. Young men of color are disproportionally targeted for stop and frisk searches.

This month, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly issued an internal order to stop arresting people for supposedly displaying marijuana in public when the drugs were never visible. NYPD sources tell WNYC that this is the first time that Kelly has addressed the issue since WNYC’s investigation was published.

Twenty-five-year-old Antonio Rivera told WNYC that he was stopped and frisked in the Bronx. The police found a baggie of marijuana concealed in his crotch. The criminal complaint against Rivera claimed the drugs were on “public display,” a more serious offense than simply being caught with a small amount of marijuana hidden on one’s person. Under New York law, people displaying pot get arrested, people caught with hidden drugs get ticketed.

If the drug were on public display, that would give the police probable cause for arrest in itself. So, if an unethical officer searched someone without probable cause and found drugs, s/he could retroactively justify the search by falsely claiming that the drugs were on display.

More than 50,000 people were arrested for marijuana posession last year, the highest number in a decade. Jeannette Rucker, a supervising prosecutor at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office told WNYC that she throws out 10 to 15 arrests for public display of marijuana every day because the police report debunks the charge (e.g., the report says the drug was found in the suspect’s pocket).

[Photo credit: jtl308, Creative Commons.]