Last week’s testimony in the historic Floyd v. City of New York trial began with expert witnesses splitting hairs over statistical methodology and ended with police officials splitting hairs over the difference between quotas and performance goals. In between, the most striking testimony once again concerned some of the city’s most notorious “overstoppers,” officers who have stopped far more New Yorkers than average.

Officer Kha Dang confirmed on the stand what his supervisor, Segeant Joseph Marino, had said the week before – namely, that his superiors were unconcerned with Dang’s stops. Dang testified that he had never had any discussion with supervisors about the fact that 127 stops in one quarter resulted in only six arrests, nor about the fact there was not a single white person stopped among those 127.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Charlton Telford, the supervisor of two of the city’s overstoppers, testified that he was not troubled by the fact that Officer Edgar Gonzalez checked off “fits description,” “high crime area,” and “time of day” for 132 out of 134 stops in one quarter. The judge asked him if he was concerned that 98% of people stopped somehow “fit the description.” He said no. And while virtually every person stopped “fit the description,” oddly none were related to an “ongoing investigation,” according to the paperwork submitted by Gonzalez. Here, too, Telford was unconcerned.

The city is expected to wrap up its case in the liability phase of the trial mid-week this week. After that there will be a brief remedies phase in which both sides present witnesses. Closing arguments in the case are currently scheduled for next Monday, May 20.

If this schedule holds, this will be our last weekly update on the trial. We will send a final report after the closing arguments, so look for something from CCR likely on Tuesday, May 21.

In the meantime, you can read the daily reports from every single day of the trial on the website. As always, we also post them on Facebook and Twitter and encourage you to share and retweet us.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely, Annette Warren Dickerson Director of Education and Outreach