Suffolk County PD To Settle Lawsuit Over Discriminatory Policies, Pay Over $2 Million

The end is in sight for a class action lawsuit involving the Suffolk County Police Department, according to court documents.

The Suffolk County Police Department will be required to pay over $2 million as well as update training and procedures to reduce implicit bias against Latinos, according to a lawsuit that is expected to be finalized in July 2023.
Photo Credit: *Facebook/Suffolk County Police Department & Unsplash/@wesleyphotography*

Sophie Grieser

04/14/2023 11:00 a.m.

The suit, which alleges that the SCPD has discriminatory policing practices against Latinos, would result in the department paying around $2.25 million in plaintiff’s attorney fees as well as making numerous changes to traffic-stop and body-camera procedures.

SCPD announced the Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement on its Facebook page on Tuesday, April 11. Both sides have agreed to the settlement (though SCPD denies any wrongdoing) and it is waiting on final court approval before going into motion.

According to documents, 20 Latino plaintiffs filed the suit with the help of advocate group LatinoJustice PRLDEF, claiming that their Fourth-, Fifth-, and 14th-Amendment rights were violated by “discriminatory and unconstitutional policing policies, patterns, and practices” within the county’s police department.

This new agreement will, among many changes, require SCPD to release raw data from pedestrian and traffic stops quarterly with more information pertaining to where a stop occurred and action taken by the police.

The agreement also establishes a civilian oversight review process, where the public may submit complaints of officer misconduct to be reviewed.

In addition, the department will be required to implement further implicit bias training (called Implicit Bias 2.0 Training, which is an expansion upon and update to the SCPD’s current bias training), adhere to body camera regulations, and further traffic and pedestrian stop training.

In order to be more transparent and accessible to Spanish speakers, the department will now also be required to provide all documents in Spanish as well as English and provide easier access for translating their website to Spanish.

In 2021, a judge rejected SCPD’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, determining that, had the department collected and analyzed its data adequately, it would “ show that SCPD officers targeted Latinos for traffic stops and subjected them to disparate treatment during those stops.”

The final hearing for the settlement is scheduled for Friday, July 14 in Brooklyn.

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