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NYPD Stop-And-Frisks Plummeted In The Spring
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 3, 2012
Modified Aug 3, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 3, 2012
Modified Aug 3, 2012
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The NYPD was considerably less frisky in the second quarter of 2012. After a record high 203,500 stop and frisks in the first quarter of the year, the department dialed back the controversial practice, stopping 133,934 people in April, May, and June. A source tells the Post that "part of the reason it went down" has to do with the widespread condemnation of stop-and-frisk, which critics equate with racial profiling and a violation of Constitutional rights. But both the Post and the Times are being told that bad p.r. wasn't the biggest factor. From the Times:
The steep decline over the recent three months is partly attributable to a decline in the number of rookie officers assigned to Operation Impact,
a signature program of Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly’s that places recent graduates of the police academy in high-crime neighborhoods and tasks them with seeking out suspicious behavior. But two police officers said in interviews that it also reflected a growing hesitation to conduct street stops because of the controversy surrounding the practice.
Out of 133,934 stops, the NYPD seized 1,769 weapons. 54 percent of those stopped were black, 32 percent Hispanics, 10 percent whites, and 3 percent Asians, according to the Post's source, who takes pains to note that those percentages "tracked closely to the races of criminals identified by witnesses: 66 percent black; 26 percent Hispanic; 6 percent white; and 2 percent Asian."
In response to these reports, NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman issued a statement saying, "We’re encouraged to see that the number of street stops dropped over the year’s second quarter, but the stop-and-frisk data that was leaked to the press doesn’t say anything about the number of innocent New Yorkers who were stopped during that period.
"If past is prologue, we can expect that NYPD officers subjected at least 1,000 innocent New Yorkers a day to humiliating and unjustified street stops. That is nothing to brag about. This reduction is a good start, but much more needs to be done to rebuild community trust and protect New Yorkers from illegal and racially biased street stops."
In June we took a tour of the NYPD's Bronx training facility and watched officers reenact their version of how stop-and-frisks are supposed to go—here's our story, with video.
Tagged
nypd
statistics
stop and frisk
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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