it took 9 years of lawsuits, meetings, and struggling with not losing hope. It took 2 million dollars in attorneys fees. 21 drivers (at least) stood up against police extortion and racism, and finally got a 4 million dollar federal judgement against the Suffolk County Police department

Twenty-one Latino drivers sued the county alleging that police ignored evidence of Sgt. Greene’s “stop-and-rob” scheme. He had pled guilty to this in court, by the way. 

The agreement adds additional requirements on top of a 2013 agreement that demanded police reforms and federal oversight of the Long Island police department

Police struggled to comply with even the most basic terms of the agreement, according to correspondence between Suffolk and the Department of Justice. For example, the DOJ required that the county collect and analyze traffic stop data. However, the county admitted before U.S. Magistrate Louis Bloom that the data it collected was unreliable and was never analyzed.

In a 23-page decision, Judge William Kuntz wrote that Suffolk failed to “make any serious attempt to change their practices.” He added that had Suffolk collected the data correctly, it would have shown that “officers targeted Latinos and subjected them to disparate treatment.”

The ruling also finds that former Police Commissioner Ed Webber and now-deputy chief of internal affairs Milagros Soto may have been aware of the biased policing.

Following a state-mandated police reform in 2021, the county did publish an online dashboard of traffic stop data. However, it did not include license plate information, the reason people were searched, and actions officers took.

https://gothamist.com/news/at-moving-hearing-judge-approves-375m-settlement-against-suffolk-police

https://gothamist.com/news/suffolk-police-promise-comprehensive-reforms-in-proposed-375m-settlement-with-civil-rights-activists

https://www.wshu.org/news/2021-08-09/judge-suffolk-police-dept-should-have-known-it-targeted-latinos