It's a case of "over-reaching," an unconstitutional practice that amounts to New York City cops "breaking the law to enforce another law."

That's how New York State Sen. Eric Adams, a Democrat of Brooklyn, has described a widespread practice of the New York Police Department, whose cops on the beat are stopping livery cabs, mainly in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx and forcing passengers to get out of vehicles so they can be frisked, despite the fact that there isn't any reasonable suspicion of illegal behavior.

"The NYPD is over-reaching by using the Taxi/Livery Inspection Program, TRIP, a great program for driver safety, to stop and frisk innocent passengers in livery," said Adams, himself a retired police officer.

While Assemblyman Nick Perry, deputy majority leader of the state's lower chamber used a different set of words to criticize the actions of cops, he essentially agreed with Adams. Just as important, both lawmakers have endorsed a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, challenging the NYPD's "unlawful practice" of detaining, questioning and searching "innocent passengers" of livery cabs in black, Latino, and other predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods.

"I approve of the Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit," said Perry. "They [the police] need to be reined in somewhat and this kind of action by the NYCLU is long overdue. Some of my constituents have suffered as a result of the actions of police officers. We continue to raise questions about the constitutionality of the actions by police officers and I am glad that the NYCLU is pursuing this matter. Whatever I can do to help protect the civil rights of New Yorkers, I stand ready to provide that protection."

Adams believes the NYPD is now using a perfectly legal and useful effort designed to curb crime against livery cab drivers in order to turn around and abuse people's constitutional rights and in the process, break the law.

"What is happening is illegal, unethical, and unconstitutional, and it wouldn't happen with yellow cabs in Manhattan," he asserted. "The NYPD is breaking the law under the guise of enforcing the law. That's quite sad indeed."

In its lawsuit, which was filed recently in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the NYCLU complained that the NYPD was using TRIP to expand the reach of its unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices. Although the suit doesn't challenge safety stops of livery cabs, the goal of the court action is "to halt" the practice of stopping and frisking passengers without due cause.

"Over the past few years, NYPD officers have stopped and frisked millions of innocent people for walking in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time, and now the department has extended this unlawful practice to passengers in livery cars," charged Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director. "It's just another disturbing example of the NYPD's campaign of excessive and racially lopsided policing, and we're confident the court will put a stop to it."

As the Civil Liberties Union explained it, the plaintiffs in the suit were riding in livery cabs in Bedford–Stuyvesant and Harlem when police stopped, detained, questioned, and searched them, even though the livery drivers had told the security officers there wasn't a problem. It also occurred despite the fact that the cops didn't suspect the passengers of committing a crime and didn't believe they were in any danger. The suit is asking the federal court to declare that the Police Department's actions were unconstitutional because they violated protections against unreasonable searches.

As first steps, the NYCLU is seeking a court injunction to end the abuse of TRIP and to force the NYPD to train cops so they can better monitor the program.

The defendants in the suit are Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, New York City and individual police officers. "Merely riding in a livery cab should not make you a target for the police," said Christopher Dunn, the Civil Liberties Union associate legal director. "We fully support driver safety checks, but this frightening mistreatment of passengers must stop."

Actually, the plaintiffs in the case are Terrance Battle, a 38-year-old radio executive, standup comic and father of two children, and Munir Pujara, a 37-year-old Harlem resident and attorney. Battle was taking a cab to his Bedford-Stuyvesant home after a performance in Manhattan in October when he was stopped by three police officers who pulled over the car near Battle's home. He was ordered out of the vehicle, frisked and searched.

"Being questioned and searched by three officers in the middle of the night was a frightening and humiliating experience," said Battle. "What they did was wrong, and I want to make sure it doesn't happen again to me and others who use livery cars."

As for Pujara, he said that he had hailed a cab in September to return home from work, but shortly into the trip, the cab was pulled over by police. Even though the driver said that everything was fine, Pujara was ordered out of the cab, forced to place his hands on the roof and spread his legs, and searched. He was threatened with arrest when he questioned the officers' right to do this.

"As a lawyer, I knew this was illegal and I told the officers it was illegal, but it made no difference," said Pujara. "Every time I ride in a livery cab now, I can't help but think how upset and afraid I was."

Adams, a highly vocal critic of the stop-and-frisk police action, described the tactic as going "much beyond" what was necessary to curb crime against livery cab drivers, while Perry charged that far too many officers believed it was all right to become overly aggressive in black and Latino neighborhoods.