New York Court Rules on Cycling Search and Seizure

According to a Streetsblog NYC article by Julianne Cuba, “The highest court in New York this week decided that bicyclists should have the same protection as car drivers against unlawful search and seizure — a decision that connects to the city’s long history of cops targeting people of color who get around by bike.”

The court ruled that the 2014 arrest of a cyclist later found to be carrying a gun amounted to unreasonable search and seizure that violates the Constitution. “‘What the court held is that the officer didn't have the basis to stop him and based on just seeing a bulge in his waistband,’ said NYCLU senior attorney Daniel Lambright.”

The ruling puts cyclists on an equal footing (so to speak) with people in cars, where courts have generally ruled that “stopping a person in a car is such a ‘restriction of the liberty of an individual’ that it should be considered a seizure.” Advocates say it will limit the number of violent interactions with police, particularly for people of color. “According to the most recent stats, police wrote 421 summonses for biking on the sidewalk last year. Eighty-three percent of the tickets where the officer included the race of the suspect were issued to Black or Hispanics, who comprise roughly 50 percent of the population. Only 8 percent of the tickets were written to white people, who comprise roughly 40 percent of the population.”