A report released by the NYPD reveals that the controversial stop-and-frisk practice saw a 22 percent reduction between 2011 to 2012. While the department states that there were fewer incidents of the practice, Black and Latino men remain top targets.
The NYPD conducted over 533,000 stops and frisks in 2012 and over 685,000 in 2011. Over 7,000 weapons were recovered in 2012 from stop and frisk. Over 55 percent of those stopped were Black men, while white men made up only 3 percent. The information is in the reports titled “Reasonable Suspicion Stops: Precinct Based Comparison by Stop and Suspect Description.” Reports indicate that NYPD spokesman Paul Browne attributed the reduction in the numbers to police training and cutting the number of rookie officers assigned to high-crime areas. Brooklyn topped the city for the most stop-and-frisk incidents, with East New York and Cypress Hills as hotspots. The top five neighborhoods for stop-and-frisk included Brownsville and Williamsburg in Brooklyn and the Melrose neighborhood of the Bronx.
“I am fortunate to live in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in New York City,” said Van Anden, a resident of Flatbush. “I have witnessed the negative impact stop-and-frisk has had on some of my neighbors. Racial profiling creates distrust between the community and the police. We need more trust, not less.”
At a recent press conference, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) rejected the numbers and maintained its position that the practice is flawed. The executive director for the organization, Donna Lieberman, said only 0.1 percent of stops resulted in the recovery of a gun and said that the numbers were a “poor yield rate” for the practice.
“Stop and Frisk Watch empowers New Yorkers to confront abusive, discriminatory policing,” Lieberman said. “The NYPD’s own data shows that the overwhelming majority of people subjected to stop-and-frisk are black or Latino, and innocent of any wrongdoing.”
Earlier this month, the NYCLU released an iPhone version of Stop and Frisk Watch, a free smartphone app that allows bystanders to document NYPD stop-and-frisk encounters and alert community members when a street stop is in progress. Stop and Frisk Watch has been available on Android phones since June and has been downloaded by nearly 20,000 New Yorkers.
YouTube was abuzz when a video was posted showing NYPD uniformed officers who used the app to display a middle finger given by one of the cops. The NYPD has yet to comment on the footage.
An NYCLU analysis showed that Black and Latino males between the ages of 14 and 24 accounted for 41.6 percent of stops in 2011, though they make up only 4.7 percent of the city’s population. The number of stops of young Black men exceeded the city’s entire population of young Black men.
“While we’ve yet to see a ‘Rodney King’ moment, Stop and Frisk Watch submissions have confirmed a number of concerns the NYCLU has about stop-and-frisk abuse and has provided New Yorkers with a powerful tool to document police abuse,” Lieberman said. “We’re proud that the app is used every day in New York City and that the attention it has received has encouraged people to document and expose police activity with their smartphones.”
A Quinnipiac University poll reveals that New York City voters remain opposed to the stop-and-frisk practice. Voters disapprove of the police use of the tactic 50 to 46 percent.
“The NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk continues to face disapproval throughout our city, as a majority of Democratic, Black and Latino voters and a plurality of women voters indicated in this recent Quinnipiac Poll,” said Joo-Hyng Kang, spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform.
“New Yorkers understand constitutional rights, and they know that daily stop-and-frisk abuse and harassment of communities does not make us any safer,” Kang said.