This story originally published by ProPublica
by Sarah Ryley, for ProPublica, Feb. 14, 2017, 1:37 p.m.
The New York City Council is expected to pass sweeping changes Wednesday to a law that has allowed the city’s police department to force people from their homes and businesses without warning over sometimes flimsy allegations.
In October, the council introduced 13 bills called the Nuisance Abatement Fairness Act in response to a New York Daily News and ProPublica investigation that found the New York City Police Department has abused the decades-old law. The bills are scheduled for a vote on Wednesday, with some minor amendments, and are expected to pass, sources said. Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign them.
The city enacted the nuisance abatement law in the 1970s to push the sex industry out of Times Square. Since then, the NYPD has greatly expanded its use, targeting businesses and homes it said were the sites of repeated criminal activity. The agency filed 2,609 of the civil lawsuits from 2013 through 2015 alone.
