(NY Daily News) The NYPD will no longer force religiously observant people under arrest to remove their head coverings, like hijabs — an agreement with civil rights groups that ends nearly three years of litigation.
The police practice, often done to take mugshots or do searches, affected thousands of New Yorkers, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, which filed the lawsuit, alleged.
The partial settlement requires the NYPD to stop forcing people to remove head coverings — except if there’s reasonable suspicion they’re being used as a disguise.
The settlement also requires the NYPD to create a private area for searching and photographing those with head coverings, and to disclose the annual number of such cases. In addition, there’s a provision for training cops on the new practice.
