A federal lawsuit over the treatment of Latinos by the Suffolk County Police Department has been settled with various requirements designed to make the actions of officers more transparent including the wearing of body cameras and traffic stop reporting mechanisms. Pending final approval by Judge William F. Kunitz, the deal requires the county to pay $75,000 to each of the 20 plaintiffs named in the lawsuit who claimed to be victims of race-based police stops, detentions and other harassment.
The lawsuit was filed in the wake of the arrest of Suffolk Police Sergeant Scott A. Green in 2016 for shaking down Latino motorists for cash during traffic stops. A defendant in the case along with police brass at the time, Green was convicted of grand larceny and other charges and sentenced to one to three years in prison.
The case, brought by the Manhattan-based civil rights organization LatinoJustice, will codify police department reforms that were put in place under The 2021 Suffolk County Police Reform and Reinvention plan following the 2020 death of George Floyd. Judge Kuntz had referred the county and LatinoJustice to mediation last year. The results of their settlement includes:
• Equipping Suffolk officers with body cameras.
• Creation of a “Precinct-Level Advisory Board” for Suffolk’s seven police precincts consisting of religious leaders and civic organizations to help police address community concerns, foster new relationships with community leaders, and establish better lines of communication.
• Publication on a quarterly basis of data on traffic and pedestrian stops where officers are required to record the reason for a stop, the length of the stop, and actions taken by the officer and demographic information of those stopped.
• Bias training for officers that utilizes the traffic stop data.
• Improved language access, including a Spanish-speaking aide at the Third Precinct in Bay Shore to help residents communicate with officers.
• Investigators conducting background checks for Suffolk police candidates are required to determine if candidates have ever been involved with white supremacist organizations or hate groups.
The settlement ensures that the reforms remain in place for at least three years and requires Suffolk’s Human Rights Commission to take on a new oversight role over the police department’s internal affairs investigations.
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Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said in a statement: "The 2021 Suffolk County Police Reform and Reinvention plan addresses a large majority of the substantive terms of the agreement which we have implemented or are in the process of implementing. Transparency in policing is of the utmost importance to enable public trust and we will continue to implement changes to provide equitable police services for all."
Suffolk’s plan was generated after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated law enforcement agencies statewide to submit police reform strategies or risk losing state funding. Pressure to change county policing policies increased after the department was the target of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation following the fatal attack on Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in 2008 by a group of teens. The investigation led to an agreement between the DOJ and Suffolk to reform its police practices.
After the matter was ordered to arbitration, the plaintiff’s attorney, Milbank LLC partner Atara Miller, said, “SCPD continues to fail its Latino community, but this order sends a signal that biased policing has no place in our society. We look forward to continuing to work with LatinoJustice to hold SCPD accountable to the reform it promised over five years ago.”
Latino Justice Deputy General Counsel José Pérez, added: “This is an important step towards ensuring that the Latino community in Suffolk County will be treated fairly by police officers. The atrocities the community has experienced at the hands of those charged with protecting them are abhorrent, including the racial profiling and the ‘stopping and robbing’ scheme enacted by a police officer.”
“There is no room in our society for anyone who discriminates, especially if they are in positions paid for by the taxpayers,” Brookhaven Supervisor Edward Romaine said. “All citizens, regardless of race, color, creed, ethnicity or nationality should be treated with respect.”
No others involved in the class-action lawsuit will receive compensation as part of the settlement, which will be the subject of a hearing before Judge Kuntz July 14 in U.S. Eastern District Court in Brooklyn. The attorneys for the plaintiffs will receive $2.25 million in fees.