NBCWashington.com reports that three District residents, who were part of the legal challenge against 2008’s Trinidad police checkpoints, will be awarded $3,500 and legal fees as part of a settlement reached last week. As part of the deal, police will also be required to expunge any data they collected on individuals they stopped while the checkpoints were in effect. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in July 2009 that the highly…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. on Thursday denied the District’s petition to re-hear its case challenging the constitutionality of the police checkpoint program used in Trinidad in 2008. The controversial “Neighborhood Safety Zone” checkpoints adopted by D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier were first ruled unconstitutional by a three-judge panel on July 10, and this time, a total of seven out of eight judges voted not to grant the District’s petition to re-hear…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that last summer’s controversial “Neighborhood Safety Zone” checkpoints in the Trinidad neighborhood were likely unconstitutional, sending the case back to the U.S. District Court for trial. “It is apparent that appellants’ constitutional rights are violated,” wrote Chief Judge David Bryan Sentelle in the decision. You can download a PDF copy of the full decision, issued Friday by the three-judge panel. The NSZ program, established…

NBCWashington.com reports that The Partnership for Civil Justice — who unsuccessfully sued the city last year in an attempt to strike down last year’s controversial checkpoints in Trinidad — was back in front of an appeals panel yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to strike the practice. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney with the organization, argued that the checkpoints violated “fundamental constitutional rights,” and that the police’s standards for selecting who could enter the neighborhood were arbitrary….

The Examiner’s Bill Myers managed to get a hold of a bunch of internal MPD emails concerning last summer’s controversial “Neighborhood Safety Zone” checkpoints in Trinidad, and the resulting story paints a chaotic picture of disagreement and confusion over the tactic within the department. A series of emails written by Assistant Chief Diane Groomes complained that the additional officers sent to staff the Trinidad checkpoint had left areas of the city under-protected. You can download…

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced this afternoon that five men have been arrested for the killing of 13-year-old Alonzo Robinson and shooting of four other people in Trinidad last July. The shooting spree was one of the worst incidents in a wave of increased violence in Trinidad that lead police to establish controversial checkpoints in the area. Police say the five men, all from the Kenilworth-Parkside area, sprayed gunfire in the neighborhood in an…

D.C. Wire is reporting that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier’s controversial “Neighborhood Safety Zone” checkpoint tactic has passed its first test in federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon today denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the checkpoints filed by a group of District residents. In the ruling, Leon found that the checkpoints are not unconstitutional and are a reasonable crime prevention tactic to use against a specific kind of vehicle-related violent crime. This…

Residents watch the police checkpoint in D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood on Saturday, June 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) We balked at the initial news that the Metropolitan Police Department planned to throw up barriers and checkpoints in certain D.C. neighborhoods experiencing excessive violent crime. Later, when we learned the details of the first case, the week-long checkpoint that was established in Trinidad, the MPD’s plan appeared to be both constitutionally dubious and potentially not…