After years of burnishing a reputation as one of the nation's most potent police forces, the New York Police Department appears poised to become one of the most closely monitored.

A federal judge this week said the department made thousands of racially discriminatory street stops and appointed a monitor to direct changes. And city lawmakers are readying for a final vote Thursday on creating an inspector general for the NYPD and widening the legal path for pursuing claims of police bias.

It's a one-two punch of outside tinkering that will muddy police work, a pair of complementary steps to protect civil rights or a rash of policymaking that may end up meaning little on the street, depending on who gets asked. But from any perspective, it would be the onset of a new era of oversight for the country's biggest police department, though the impacts would be defined by particulars and politics still in play.

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