Ailsa Chang

WNYC reporter Ailsa Chang reports on the latest developments in the ongoing controversy over the NYPD's use of stop-and-frisk.

The Democratically controlled state Assembly is expected to take up a version of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana this week. But the Senate ...

For the first time, New York City leaders will make a concerted effort to formally bring the stop-and-frisk issue to the attention of Congress.

WNYC reporter Ailsa Chang and Capital New York political reporter Azi Paybarah discuss the Cuomo administration's decision to put pressure on the NYPD stop and frisk policy; the collapse of the Queens casino deal; livery cab bill latest; and the fallout from Mayor Bloomberg's war on big soda.

Under current law in New York, possessing a small amount of marijuana is only a crime if it's in public view.  On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo put his political muscle behind a bill that would make that a violation, not a crime ― meaning you only get a ticket and pay a fine. Cuomo's sudden announcement took many by surprise, but it was a decision that had been unfolding for months.

As the legislative session in Albany grinds through its final two and a half weeks, criminal justice advocates are seeking passage of wrongful conviction reforms that have been stymied for more than five years in the state capital.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes continued to defend his office's record on sex abuse cases in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community at an unrelated press conference Wednesday. He said the victim intimidation in that community is worse than what he's seen in organized crime and police corruption cases over his nearly two-decade career.

Brooklyn prosecutors have indicted 14 members of the so-called Brower Boys, a Crown Heights street gang accused of a series of burglaries, assaults and robberies near Brower Park in Brooklyn. 

One in five people stopped last year by NYPD was a teenager between the ages of 14 and 18, according to a WNYC analysis of recently released police data. The data also strongly sug...

Under increasing heat for the New York City police department’s stop-and-frisk practices, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly sent a letter to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn outlining changes, as WNYC first reported last week, to the policy. But law enforcement experts say Kelly’s changes do not go far enough.

A judge gave the go-ahead to a class action suit against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy. WNYC reporter Ailsa Chang talks about the suit and its potential impact.

A federal judge has granted class action status to a 2008 lawsuit accusing the NYPD of discriminating against blacks and Hispanics with its stop-and-frisk policies aimed at reducing...

Finding the city's attitude "deeply troubling," a judge granted class action status Wednesday to a 2008 lawsuit accusing the New York Police Department of discriminating against blacks and Hispanics with its stop-and-frisk policies aimed at reducing crime.

The city has settled a federal lawsuit that challenged the New York Police Department’s detaining, questioning and searching passengers for weapons in livery cabs as part of a city livery cab inspection program. 

Just days after President Barack Obama declared his support of gay marriage, a standing body of the U.S. House of Representatives will try to block an attempt by five legally married same-sex couples to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.

Supervising officers in the New York City Police Department tell WNYC that, in recent weeks, all precinct commanders have been instructed by the highest levels of the department to carefully review stop-and-frisk reports to ensure they reflect proper stops, and are not an effort to meet productivity goals.

Police target blacks and Latinos when deciding to stop and frisk someone, according to an analysis of new NYPD data by the New York Civil Liberties Union released Wednesday.

While Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing more cuts to non-profit social services, particularly to low-income childcare programs, a study released Monday by the Fiscal Policy Institute shows that the non-profit sector is the largest employer in the city's private economy.

Additional Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are coming forward to allege they were targeted by police officers executing old bench warrants for minor violations in order to collect intelligence about the May Day protests this week.

Nearly two dozen demonstrators arrested last year while protesting the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy have gone on trial.