Deconstructing the Gang Menace: Gang Policing and Police “Expert” Testimony in New York City

Abstract

In New York City, the gang member is feared, vilified, and romanticized. The New York City Police Department (NYPD), the media, elected officials, and courts have all played a part in casting street gang members as some of the most dangerous people in society. But who exactly are these so-called gangsters? The answer is highly racialized: An overwhelming ninety-seven percent of the NYPD’s Criminal Group Database (CGD) are Black and Latino men. Although this disparity is harmful in itself, it represents only a part of the problem these men face. Alleged gang members who are arrested and wish to contest their criminality at trial are faced with an insidious prosecutorial practice—the admission of NYPD officers as gang “experts.” These experts infect the courtroom with racial bias, while judges are exceedingly deferential to them despite their problematic methods of policing and surveillance. Their testimony is both unfairly prejudicial and unreliable, as it feeds off implicit biases and couples gang member stigmatization with the overbroad and extremely suspect evidence encapsulated within the CGD. In exploring this issue, this Note will proceed in three Parts. Part I provides an overview of gang policing and prosecution in New York City, highlighting changes in policing tactics over time and the current law around police gang expert testimony. Part II outlines the racial implications of police gang expert testimony, focusing on prejudice and unreliability. Part III advocates for the admission of nonpolice gang experts to counteract these negative effects of police testimony.