NYPD Gang Database Targets Black and Latino People, Suit Says

The New York City Police Department criminalizes Black and Latino New Yorkers by labeling them as gang members in a police database, leading to unconstitutional criminal surveillance and detention, according to a federal lawsuit.

Over 99% of the 13,200 people listed as active gang members in the database are Black or Latino, some of them as young as 13, according to the class action filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

“The Database replicates and deepens the racial disparities of the NYPD’s unconstitutional” stop-and-frisk practices and “recycles the very racial-profiling tactics driving those disparities,” the complaint says.

The plaintiffs, three Black men from Brooklyn and Staten Island, are seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting use of the database, as well as a jury trial to determine monetary damages.

Two of the men are listed as active criminal group members. The third is now listed as “inactive,” but he continues to be subjected to NYPD surveillance and “harassment by officers,” according to the complaint.

The NYPD maintains no consistent or public definition of what constitutes a criminal group, nor does someone have be suspected of committing a crime before being added to the database, the lawsuit alleges. According to the complaint, inclusion in the database can result in heightened bail or the denial of bail, the revocation or denial of plea offers, and ineligibility for diversion programs.

A department spokesperson said the database “is not a ground for a stop or arrest and is not evidence in court,” but rather a “critical intelligence tool” for solving gun crimes and tracking gangs.

The Legal Aid Society, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., LatinoJustice PRLDEF, The Bronx Defenders, and Ballard Spahr LLP represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Plantiffs 1-3 v. The City of New York, E.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-02397, complaint filed 4/30/25.