The NYPD and Policing's "Small Toolkit"

With New York Mayor Eric Adams deploying discriminatory police tactics — not to mention insisting that asylum seekers “will destroy New York City” — it felt like a good time to explore the early history of the NYPD. In his new book, Police and the Empire City, and in conversation, Dr. Matthew Guariglia reveals how biased perceptions of race and ethnicity shaped policing in New York (and beyond) from the outset.

Dr. Guariglia is an Affiliated Scholar at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. His bylines have appeared in NBC News, The Washington Post, and Slate, among others.