‘It’s Shameful … Treated Like an Animal’: Black Men Sue NYPD After Officers Searched Their Cars During Minor Traffic Stops Even After They Refused Consent
The New York City Police Department has long held a reputation for profiling against Black and Brown people through unlawful stop and frisk procedures, a practice that peaked during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration.
But these unlawful practices declined in 2014 with the election of Mayor Bill de Blasio as well as lawsuits that determined it was unconstitutional to stop minorities on the street and frisk them without reasonable suspicion they are involved in a crime.
However, under the leadership of the city’s second Black mayor, Eric Adams, a former NYPD cop who took over in 2022, the practice of profiling minorities shot up instead.
Now the New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit the NYPD and multiple officers, alleging there is a huge disparity between the number of Black and Hispanic drivers that get searched compared to white drivers.
The 47-page claim represents two Black men, Christopher Oliver and Justin Cohen who have been victims of racial profiling who were pulled over for minor infractions and treated like dangerous felons. Also listed as a plaintiff is the NAACP New York State Conference.
“Black or Latino drivers made up over 84 percent of reported vehicle searches conducted by the NYPD from 2022 through September 2025, while less than 4 percent of vehicle searches targeted white drivers,” states the claim filed in federal court last month.
“Black drivers stopped by NYPD officers have their vehicles searched nearly ten times more often than white drivers,” the claim states.
Black people make up only 20 percent of the population in New York City, according to the U.S. Census while Hispanics make up about 28 percent of the population. Non-Hispanic white people still make up the majority at 31 percent.
The claim states the NYPD failed to find contraband in more than 96 percent of the times they searched vehicles during traffic stops.
“Further, although the NYPD disproportionately targets Black and Latino drivers for vehicle searches, searches of white drivers are more likely to lead to arrests for criminal possession of a weapon.”
The lawsuit names a multiple of NYPD defendants, including Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch and Chief of Department Michael Lipetri as well as officer Andrew Trupiano, Seturah Blease, Allen Moore, Michael Laduca, Malik Claybrooks, Anthony Saline, Brendan Latimer, John Battle, Bryan Scheblein, Jorge Perez, Charnel Gabon, Gustavo Santana and Zhong Yin.
The suit also listed as defendants several John and Jane Does, who are male and female cops who have not yet been identified.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of violating the Fourth and 14th Amendments as well a racial profiling against plaintiffs Oliver and Cohen.
“These searches continue a long history of the New York City Police Department intentionally policing Black and Latino communities more harshly based on unsupported stereotypes of criminality,” the claim states.
“The NYPD’s Vehicle Search Policy violates the United States Constitution, the New York State Constitution, and state and local anti-discrimination laws.”
Christopher Oliver’s Stop
During an eight-month period between 2024 and 2025, Oliver, one of the Black plaintiffs in the claim, was stopped by the NYPD on four separate occasions.
The first time was on Aug. 17, 2024, when the 30-year-old man was pulled over in the Bronx by two cops in an unmarked car who accused him of having illegal tints.
The cops ordered him and his passenger out of the car where they began searching it without consent. After finding nothing illegal, the cops let them go without even measuring the degree of tint on his windows.
The second time was on Oct. 16, 2024, when he was pulled over by three uniformed cops in an unmarked car who also accused him of driving with illegal tints, ordering him and his passenger out of the car where they began searching it without consent.
But after finding nothing illegal, the two men were allowed to leave without the cops ever attempting to measure the degree of tint on his windows.
And it happened again on Nov. 13, 2024, when he was pulled over in Manhattan by another group of cops in an unmarked vehicle who also accused him of driving with illegal tints on his windows.
Like the first two times, the cops ordered him and his passengers out of the car and began searching it without consent.
After finding nothing illegal, the cops allowed the men to leave without ever measuring the degree of tint on his window.
The fourth time took place on April 9, 2025, while sitting in a parked car in Manhattan when he was approached by several cops who ordered him out of the car and searched it without consent, not finding anything illegal.
The claim does not specify the reason they gave him to detain him in the first place.
“Mr. Oliver did not consent to the search of his vehicle,” the claim states. “The officers did not recover any contraband from Mr. Oliver’s vehicle, did not formally arrest Mr. Oliver, and did not issue Mr. Oliver a criminal summons or traffic summons.”
Justin Cohen’s Stop
Justin Cohen, the second plaintiff in the suit, is a 35-year-old Black man who was driving with another Black male in a rental car in the Bronx at 1:44 a.m. on May 2, 2023, when he was pulled over by four NYPD cops in an unmarked car, accused of speeding.
The cops ordered the men out of the car and handcuffed them, transporting them to the 48th Precinct and locking them inside a jail cell. One of the cops also drove his car to the same precinct where they conducted an extensive search.
After searching the trunk and finding no firearms or contraband, Officer Scheblein put all of the removed personal items and bags back into the trunk. Officer Scheblein then proceeded to again search under and around all of the seats in the vehicle.
At this point, Officers Batule, Saline, and Latimer arrived and the four officers together searched under the hood of the vehicle and examined the engine.
The entirety of the vehicle search that officers conducted at the precinct lasted at least seventeen minutes. Officers never recovered a firearm, weapon, or any other contraband as a result of their searches of Mr. Cohen and his rental vehicle.
Police ultimately released Mr. Cohen from the cell and left him to sit in the precinct with no instructions for roughly 10-15 minutes. Then, at or around 3:04 AM, police gave Mr. Cohen the keys to his rental car and a traffic ticket for allegedly speeding. Officers did not issue Mr. Cohen a criminal summons or provide any additional paperwork.
The cops lied in their report, claiming Cohen granted them permission to search his car, which was disproved by body camera video.
Defendant Officer Batule also submitted paperwork that incorrectly stated that Mr. Cohen consented to the search of his vehicle. The report claimed that Mr. Cohen gave the NYPD consent to search his vehicle upon being asked by Officer Saline. However, body camera video shows that when an officer asked Mr. Cohen if he was allowing the officers to search his vehicle, Mr. Cohen clearly and unequivocally replied, “No, I’m not.” The Stop Report and Vehicle Report submitted by Officer Latimer also incorrectly state that Mr. Cohen consented to a search of his vehicle.
Officers lacked any legitimate reason for suspecting that Mr. Cohen was armed or that there was a weapon in his rental vehicle. Instead, the officers’ unfounded belief that Mr. Cohen was armed was motivated by racial discrimination and the searches of his car were performed pursuant to the Vehicle Search Policy.
After finding no contraband in his car, the cops released him with a speeding ticket which was dismissed in court.
But even after setting him free, he was not allowed to walk out with his shoes because they seized them and did not return them.
“It’s scary to be treated like an animal,” Cohen said in a video interview published by the NYCLU.
“You’re thrown in a cage and your freedom is taken away from you. It’s shameful that we still have to go through this,” he added.