On Tuesday morning, a U.S. District Court judge dealt a significant blow to the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk strategy, ruling that for years police officers have violated the rights of residents at private buildings in the Bronx under the auspices of the department’s Operation Clean Halls program.

For more than 20 years, the Operation Clean Halls program has allowed officers to patrol in and around private buildings that choose to participate in the program. In total, 3,261 buildings in the Bronx are enrolled in the program and 8,032 buildings are enrolled citywide.

Starting immediately with a preliminary injunction, the judge, Shira Scheindlin, ordered an end to stopping people without adequate grounds for suspicion of illegal activity at these buildings.

The ruling marks a victory for the New York Civil Liberties Union, The Bronx Defenders, Latino Justice PRLDEF and the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP, which jointly filed a class-action lawsuit against the city’s Operation Clean Halls program.

The groups have been increasingly critical of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk strategy, which they say is discriminatory and overwhelmingly affects blacks and Latinos.

“Today’s decision is a major step toward dismantling the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk regime,” said NYCLU Director Donna Lieberman. “Operation Clean Halls has placed New Yorkers, mostly black and Latino, under siege in their own homes in thousands of apartment buildings. This aggressive assault on people’s constitutional rights must be stopped.”

In her decision, Scheindlin wrote, “The evidence of unlawful stops at the hearing strengthens the conclusion that the NYPD’s inaccurate training has taught officers the following lesson: stop and question first, develop suspicions later.”

Editor’s note: A version of this article appears in the Jan. 10-23 print edition of the Norwood News.