NEW YORK —  A federal judge found that stop-and-search tactics used by the New York Police Department have violated the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of citizens and are racist. He has called for a federal monitor to oversee reforms to the policy.

Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that police officers have been systematically stopping innocent people in the street without any objective evidence that they had been committing an offense. Cops usually searched young black and Latino men for weapons or drugs before letting them go.

The decision found that, in 88 percent of ‘stop and frisks’ the police ended up letting the person go without an arrest or a ticket.

She found that the stop-and-frisk-episodes had demonstrated a widespread disregard for the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government and also violated the 14th Amendment, which addresses citizens’ equal rights and protection under the law, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that he will appeal the ruling.