New York police agree to reform protest tactics in settlement over 2020 response

New York City's police department has agreed to adopt new policies intended to safeguard the rights of protesters as part of a legal settlement stemming from its response to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020.

The 44-page agreement, filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, requires the nation's largest police department to deploy fewer officers to most public protests. It creates a tiered system of protest response that prioritizes deescalation, while banning the NYPD's practice of kettling, a controversial tactic that involves trapping and arresting large groups of demonstrators.

The proposed changes must still be approved by a federal judge. But the agreement signals a likely resolution in the lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James in 2021, which detailed a pattern of civil rights violations committed by police as protests swept through the city following George Floyd's death in May 2020.