The Legal Aid Society and the  NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) sent a letter to the New York City Law Department, demanding that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) immediately instruct all officers to remove any covering that obstructs public view of their shield numbers and to provide identifying information when required on patrol. Failure to comply with these requests violates the NYPD’s own Patrol Guide and New York City law, according to the New York Daily News.

Following George Floyd’s killing at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, protests demanding an end to police violence and racially discriminatory policing have taken place across New York City and throughout the country. Recent reports indicate that NYPD officers are obscuring their shield numbers with black tape or other opaque material, making them unreadable. Moreover, some NYPD officers have refused to respond to requests for identifying information and failed to cite a reason for their arrest.