Under New York State and Federal law, the police must respect a suspects constitutional rights when making an arrest and taking a person into custody. The police must have probable cause before they can arrest someone and they must not use excessive force when apprehending or taking an individual into custody. If they do not respect these rights, they can be held responsible for the improper and illegal conduct. In New York, the misconduct of NYPD officers have been brought to light following a statistical study of the NYCLU of New York City's stop and frisk policy. The results of that study showed that the NYPD stopped and questioned people 685,724 times. Out of those stopped, 9 out of 10 people were not ticketed or arrested for any crime. On top of this, 55.7% of those stopped were frisked, but of those frisked a weapon was found only 1.9% of the time.

In fact, Sullivan & Brill's New York Criminal Defense Attorney, Steven Brill was recently interviewed by Lawyers.Com on his opinion and experience with New York's stop and frisk policy. In the interview, New York Criminal Attorney Steven Brill expressed his dismay in the staggering rise of stop and frisks by the NYPD. Needless to say, our criminal defense lawyers at Sullivan & Brill are well aware of the alarming increase in improper stop and frisk conduct by the NYPD and are using this conduct to better represent our clients who have been arrested and charged with a New York State or Federal crime.

Sullivan & Brill has partnered up with experienced co-counsel to bring lawsuits for false arrest, malicious prosecution and police brutality against the New York City Police Department, as well as other municipal entities and the offending officers. Victims often don't realized that even without a serious physical injury, they may have a strong case for the violation of their civil rights. In one recent case Sullivan & Brill and co-counsel obtained a $250,000 settlement on behalf of middle eastern man that was falsely accused of scalping tickets at a well known New York City theater. He was pulled from the line, his arm was twisted behind his back and he was thrown on the ground, but he was not otherwise injured.

If you believe you have been falsely arrested you must act quickly. In most cases when a false arrest claim is filed against New York City or the United States Government, the claim must be filed within a certain period of time or else you may be legally prohibited from filing a false arrest claim. It is also important that you speak to a New York Attorney that handles false arrest claims, before your underlying criminal case is resolved. Certain criminal convictions may preclude you from filing a viable false arrest claim. Furthermore, if you have filed a complaint with the civilian complaint review board (CCRB) in connection with your arrest, it is important that you maintain the arresting officer's name and badge number and the CCRB's case number for your records.