When Sheila Berman traveled to a Brooklyn police precinct final month to file a report, she encountered stairs simply contained in the entrance entrance — a lifeless finish for a 62-year-old lady who walks with the assistance of a cane.
So she stood exterior the 68th Precinct in Bay Ridge and hollered for assist.
“I had to yell because I couldn’t get up the stairs,” Berman, who suffers from again issues, informed THE CITY. “An officer had to come out and accompany me down the driveway and across the parking lot to let me in through the back door.
“I shouldn’t have to stand on the sidewalk yelling for a cop.”
Sunday marked eight years since a number of New Yorkers with disabilities filed a class-action lawsuit towards town and the NYPD in federal court docket over a long time of alleged civil-rights violations — together with architectural limitations at greater than half of town’s 77 police station homes. The swimsuit continues to be winding via the courts.
“This is a case that illustrates that they maybe aren’t taking it very seriously,” mentioned Scott Gordon, senior workers legal professional for Incapacity Rights Advocates, the nonprofit authorized rights middle that represents the plaintiffs.
In response to questions from THE CITY, a spokesperson for the NYPD mentioned that settlement talks are ongoing however wouldn’t touch upon the standing of accessibility upgrades for individuals who use wheelchairs, walkers and different mobility units.
In its 2024-2028 “AccessibleNYPD” plan, up to date early this yr, the Police Division conceded that efforts to make public areas in simply 16 so-called hub stationhouses absolutely accessible by the top of 2021 had been pushed again by the pandemic to the top of 2027.
“A small number of stationhouses will not be able to be remediated and will not be accessible to those with mobility impairments,” the NYPD wrote within the five-year accessibility plan, which is required of all metropolis companies underneath a 2023 regulation. “However, the NYPD is committed to providing access to programs and services through alternative methods.”
The division’s plan additionally estimates that these choose hubs in every borough want near $60 million in renovations via 2028 to carry them into compliance with the People with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Because the swimsuit was filed on Oct. 27, 2016, two of the 4 particular person plaintiffs have died and the NYPD has had 5 police commissioners (together with the present interim one).
The decide presiding over the case dominated in February 2020 that the NYPD had discriminated towards individuals with mobility disabilities by providing some companies — together with group conferences, cash-for-guns trade-ins and in-person allow purposes — at stationhouses with “pervasive” limitations to entry.
U.S. District Court docket Decide Valerie Caproni additionally famous that she has “reservations” in regards to the NYPD’s proposal to make accessibility upgrades solely on the 16 “hubs,” fairly than in any respect 77 stationhouses.
“This plan disregards the undisputed benefits of delivering NYPD services and programs at a local level — for an individual is most likely to seek services at his or her local station,” Caproni wrote on the time.
Time Warp
Gordon, the Incapacity Rights Advocates lawyer, in contrast coming into police amenities within the metropolis to “stepping back in time,” noting that many had been constructed earlier than the passage of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Signed into regulation by President Richard Nixon, it bars discrimination on the premise of incapacity for entities that obtain federal funding, just like the NYPD.
“They’ve had something like 50 years to comply,” Gordon mentioned.
“These police stations are central for so many activities and services, whether you’re talking about emergency things or filling out a police report,” he added. “Those emergency services are absolutely crucial to everyone in the city, but people with disabilities cannot access those services in the same way.”
Whereas there have been modest good points through accessibility-related lawsuits filed towards the MTA and the Taxi & Limousine Fee, progress has been more durable to return by within the NYPD case.
A automobile was parked on the sidewalk in an NYPD spot exterior the 88th Precinct in Brooklyn, Oct. 23, 2024. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
“Delay, delay, delay is a standard tactic that the city uses,” mentioned Joseph Rappaport, govt director of Brooklyn Heart for Independence of the Disabled, one of many two organizations that sued town and the NYPD. “What that means in that case is that almost five years after disabled people won in court, really nothing has happened to improve the accessibility of police precincts.”
At some police buildings, individuals with disabilities should enter via hard-to-find aspect or rear entrances. In different situations, the NYPD has procedures to offer lodging that embrace shifting to an alternate accessible location inside or exterior of a stationhouse or bringing a program or service on to an individual with a incapacity, in response to its five-year-plan.
“Those sorts of accommodations rely on everything working perfectly and everyone knowing what to do or else they go sideways fast,” Gordon mentioned.
Plaintiff Jean Ryan, a motorized wheelchair consumer who lives in Brooklyn, mentioned she has encountered obstacles at stationhouses whereas making an attempt to eliminate unused medicines in drop bins, attend conferences and procure a blue plastic parking allow for individuals with disabilities.
“Precincts are used for things other than taking people who got arrested,” mentioned Ryan, president of Disabled in Motion of New York, which can also be celebration to the lawsuit.
The NYPD can also be going through stress on one other authorized entrance from the Justice Division.
Damian Williams, the U.S. Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, this spring flagged the division over law enforcement officials parking on sidewalks and in crosswalks close to police precincts, a long-running follow that prosecutors mentioned results in “inaccessibility of the pedestrian grid.”
“It’s not just that they’re fortresses,” Ryan mentioned. “They’re inaccessible fortresses.”
Berman, who needed to yell for somebody to let her into the 68 Precinct, mentioned it’s unreasonable that so many stationhouses stay largely off-limits to individuals with mobility points.
“In 2024, this is ridiculous,” she mentioned.
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