NEW YORK (PIX11) -- There are two sides to this story.
On one side, there are civil rights advocates who claim police are using a gang database as a tool that discriminates against people of color.
On the other side, police insist they are not targeting any particular people. What they are using, they say, is a valuable tool to keep the city safe. Now it will be up to a judge to decide which side is right.
"We're suing the city of New York because the NYPD is running a racially discriminatory surveillance program, the gang database," said Anne Venhuizen of the Bronx Defenders.
The federal class action lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society and four other groups seeks to end the database, which contains thousands of names of people allegedly associated with gangs.
"The NYPD has labeled our clients as gang members based on nothing more than stereotypes and unwarranted assumptions. Because of that, our clients can’t do or enjoy what their white peers do with risk of being stopped, surveilled, and repeatedly harassed by the NYPD," said Alexis Johnson of the Legal Defense Fund.
Former detective Michael Alcazar takes issue with that. He's now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"We're not targeting people of color,” Alcazar insists. “We're targeting where the crimes are happening. We don't just willy-nilly pick people at random, stop them because of their race or color. It's gotta be an arrest, and we have to have probable cause."
The call to abandon the database comes amid recent shootings in the city. For years, the New York City Council has attempted to get rid of the gang database.
"Let's call it what it is. It’s another version of stop and frisk. The NYPD has continued stop and frisk under a new name,” said Rigodis Appling of the Legal Aid Society.
Alcazar disagrees.
"It’s not another version of stop and frisk. It’s just another database gathering information so that we can solve crimes to make the city safe," Alcazar said.
The lawsuit also alleges the NYPD practices and policies related to the database are in violation of several amendments to the Constitution, as well as state and local laws.
In a statement, the NYPD refutes the negative views. It reads: "A substantial portion of gun violence in New York is attributable to gang or crew activity. The NYPD has a responsibility to use the tools at its disposal to solve those shootings and prevent more shootings. One of those tools is the Criminal Group Database."
Police said they have tightened the rules for the database and reduced the number of individuals on it. Those who are on it are only known to the NYPD and not available to the public or any other agency. And before a name is added, police say they must have solid evidence that the individual is associated with a gang.
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