New York City’s police department has agreed to adopt new policies intended to safeguard the rights of protesters as part of a legal settlement stemming from its response to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020.
The 44-page agreement, filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, requires the nation’s largest police department to deploy fewer officers to most public protests. It creates a tiered system of protest response that prioritizes deescalation, while banning the NYPD’s practice of kettling, a controversial tactic that involves trapping and arresting large groups of demonstrators.
