By In a landmark decision that was brought forth on April 5, 2024, the City of New York agreed to a $17.5 million settlement to resolve a 27-page class-action lawsuit dating back to 2018. The suit, brought forth by two Muslim women, Jamilla Clark of New Jersey and Arwa Aziz of Brooklyn, accused the New York Police Department (NYPD) of violating their religious and privacy freedoms by forcibly removing their hijabs upon arrest.
Clark was arrested by NYPD on January 9, 2017, while Aziz on August 30, 2017. Both women were detained for allegedly violating orders of protection they deemed unjust. Their legal representatives equated the hijab removal to a form of “strip-searching.”
Aziz recounted feeling traumatized as NYPD officers photographed her in the presence of numerous male prisoners and police personnel. Attorneys from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP and the Council on American-Islamic Relations New York Inc., representing the plaintiffs, detailed in the complaint that “for nearly 5 minutes, NYPD officers had been taking photographs of Ms. Aziz, her head and hair uncovered, from multiple angles.”
Clark, similarly distressed, pleaded with officers to allow her to retain her hijab during her mugshots, stating, “When they forced me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I were naked,” upon discovering her photo stored in an online database accessible to male officers.
The preliminary settlement, awaiting approval from Manhattan federal court Judge Analisa Torres, was submitted on Friday. The agreement extends compensation to individuals compelled to remove their hijabs between March 16, 2014, and August 23, 2021.
The Lawsuit underscored the adverse effects of the “unnecessary and discriminatory policy” of retaining photos of Muslim women without hijabs in a database accessible to various personnel.
Citing amendments to Patrol Guide 208-07 “Photographable Offenses,” the Complaint highlighted the need for respecting religious head coverings during official photography, such as mugshots. The policy stipulated that if an arrestee declined to remove their religious head covering for an initial photo, they would be photographed wearing it, with any subsequent photo taken without the covering to be done in privacy:
“If [an] arrestee refuses to remove their religious head covering for a photograph taken for identification purposes (i.e., Prisoner Movement Slip), the arresting officer will take a digital photograph of the arrestee wearing their religious heading covering. The arresting officer will then inform the arrestee that the Department is required to take an official Department photograph at the borough Court Section in which the arrestee[‘]s head covering must be removed. If the arrestee indicates that they will continue to refuse to remove their religious head covering at the borough Court Section[,] they will be informed that they will be transported to the prisoner photography facility at the Mass Arrest Processing Center (MAPC) … where their head gear will be removed and an official Department photograph will be taken in privacy.”
Nick Paolucci, spokesperson for the New York City Law Department, disclosed that the settlement proceeds would be distributed among approximately 4,100 eligible class members.
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