In the Media

The stop and frisk debate continues and now a new study has been thrown into the mix.

The New York Attorney General’s Office released a report last week that supports the claim that the policy targets mostly young men of color and did not reduce crime.

“Supporters and opponents of the practice agree that only 6 percent of all stops result in an arrest,” the report reads. “Yet until now, no known study has sought to assess what happens following those arrests.”

CNN anchor Don Lemon credited the heavily-criticized “stop and frisk” approach by New York City police with a dramatic reduction in local crime in a radio commentary on Tuesday, and suggested that tampering with it would hurt not just the city’s residents, but its economy.

Opponents of New York’s stop-and-frisk policy cheered a judge this summer when she ruled the law unconstitutional and ordered a series of changes. But on Thursday, a higher court kicked Judge Shira Scheindlin off the case and put her decision on hold, accusing her of impropriety. 

The main NYPD union filed a lawsuit Tuesday, as expected, in a bid to get the City Council's bias profiling law tossed out, claiming the measure will make it difficult for police officers to do their jobs.

The complaint filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association claims the law is pre-empted by the state criminal procedure code and is too vague to give police guidance on what they are permitted to do.