Report: 80% of Stop-and-Frisks Are Black, Latino

The Center for Constitution Rights analyzed NYPD data between 2005 and the first half of 2008 and found, "approximately 80 percent of total stops made were of Blacks and Latinos, who comprise 25 percent and 28 percent of New York City’s total population, respectively. During this same time period, only approximately 10 percent of stops were of Whites, who comprise 44 percent of the city’s population."

Additionally, the CCR found "Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have physical force used against them during a NYPD-initiated stop than Whites. Yet the rates of summons and arrests from all stops is not only extremely low, but nearly the same across racial categories." In fact, for 2007, only 5.8% (27,632 arrests) of the 472,096 stops resulted in an arrest. The Daily News spoke to the NYPD, and spokesman Paul Browne pointed to a 2007 Rand report (which suggests the police do not racially profile during stop-and-frisk) and "said the number of minorities who were singled out under the policy is consistent with overall descriptions by race provided by victims and surviving witnesses of crime."

CCR is presenting the data in its lawsuit accusing the NYPD of racial profiling. One of the plaintiffs, David Floyd, a pre-med student at City College, said, "Getting stopped repeatedly by the police in my own neighborhood on the way home from work is humiliating. I brought the lawsuit to make sure they don’t do this to other innocent people on the basis of race. The police have to be held accountable when they break the law, just like anyone else.”

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on January 16, 2009 5:04 PM

Comments [rss]

tingo

Well, what percent of violent crimes in the city are commited by black and Latinos? Post and compare the data. If it's skewed, then it's profiling. If it correlates, then police are just following trend data and making wise decisions.

BoerumHillJo

"...the number of minorities who were singled out under the policy is consistent with overall descriptions by race provided by victims and surviving witnesses of crime."

Move along folks, nothing to see here.

maddoghomie

HEY! Apparently the Asian-looking ones ones don't get stopped-and-frisked. Right on! So now it's safe to carry my rifle underneath my coat. Just in case a pig tries to get at the stash in my back pocket, of course.

snoopydog

Missed you Bernie. Time to lock and load again and get rid of some of the scum on the streets.

berniegoetz

If Jen Chung and the rest of you apologists ever came down from your glass office buildings and/or out from your chic, insulated neighborhoods you'd know why this statistic exists. Aside from the few remaining wannabe Gottis left in Brooklyn and some of the Eastern Europeans, white people in NYC fit into one of three categories: hipsters, WASPs and blue color law and order types. I'd say 20% is probably a very liberal estimate of people in these categories who may have a concealed gun or drugs.

PS: If you've never lived anywhere near the hood and you're just regurgitating what Professor DownWithWhitey coughed up last semester on the fifth floor of the Ivory Tower, seriously just STFU already.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

@ivoryjive, do you really believe it is all about embarrassment? in regards to the old chinese woman, if they frisk her the police might find a box load of bootlegged DVDs. Your own biases demonstrates why we must have RANDON searches and not PROFILING even if the profiling is not based on racism. People's own stereotypes and biases targets certain groups and left the rest off scott free. RANDOM searches. Blacks and Latinos are not the only ones carrying illegal items. Embarrassment is the least concern .

jaycjay

"But if "racial profiling" means that cops are stopping and frisking people who match the physical description of reported perpetrators, then that's great."

And it isn't a "stop and frisk," and wouldn't be counted in these numbers.

"Stop and frisk" is the term for a detainment and search that is legally carried out without probable cause -- that is, under the lower burden in which the officer has observed "unusual conduct" that creates "reasonable suspicion." If the person matches a specific description, that constitutes probable cause for search, and that stop wouldn't be included in this report.

babyhitler

The "Why can't you be more like Obama?!?" stare of disgust should be taught in every grade school til they are in their teens. This, plus the "What the fuck is wrong wit' you NI**A!?" Scowl should place a psychological impact on most inner city youths. Only then will peace, harmony, and tranquility rule the land.

IvoryJive

I remember reading about this in City magazine in 2007 after the indictments in the Sean Bell case. Two statistics stood out to me:

1. "Blacks aren’t stopped enough, considering the rate at which they commit crimes. Though blacks, 24 percent of New York City’s population, committed 68.5 percent of all murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults in the city last year, according to victims and witnesses, they were only 55 percent of all stop-and-frisks."

2. "These specific facts about the Bell shooting are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of data points that reveal a hard truth: any given violent crime in New York is 13 times more likely to have a black than a white perpetrator."

If "racial profiling" means giving black folks a hard time just because they're black, that is an outrage and must be stopped. But if "racial profiling" means that cops are stopping and frisking people who match the physical description of reported perpetrators, then that's great. How else should they look for perps? By their shoe size?

I am a white male and I've been stopped and frisked three times before. Each time someone who looked like me had just committed a crime nearby and they thought I was the guy. Once it was right in front of my apartment building. Sure it's embarrassing to put your hands up against the wall and be searched while your neighbors are watching, but I knew I hadn't done anything wrong so I happily and politely cooperated. If I was the victim of the crime I'd want the cops to be doing exactly the same thing. If the police spend all their time worrying about whether or not they might embarrass possible criminals, they will not catch anyone.

If you are a tallish young black male, you have an unfortunate resemblance to most of the violent criminals in New York. If you are an old Chinese woman, you don't. One of you is going to get stopped a lot and one of you isn't. Tough luck.

This is all distracting from the real problem about how to build safety, prosperity, and community in black neighborhoods, and how to improve black childrens' sense of worth and ambition by providing positive roll models and illuminating career and education opportunities. Filing a lawsuit against the PD inhibiting their ability to search possible criminals in black neighborhoods is not productive - it's just perpetuating a combative relationship. These people should focus their efforts on fixing the fact that half the black men in New York don't have a job.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

To say police abuse their authority is redundant—

as everyone who’s ever been on the other side of

a badge knows, the only authority of the police

rests on the abuse they can threaten and inflict.

Police brutality is not an aberration from the norm,

but normal life in this society taken to its logical

conclusion. Wealthy executives, warmonger

politicians, and others who benefit from inequality

and oppression claim that law and order must be

established for peace and freedom to be possible,

but in fact it’s the other way around: crime and

violence can only intensify as long as our so-

called protectors enforce the social imbalances

that give rise to them.

snoopydog

For all of the people that think that the figures are wrong, go out and buy a scanner and listen to the description of the perps. I noted the descriptions of the perps in several lower Manhattan precincts for two months and the figures held pretty true to the above mentioned 80%+. Considering the area I was monitoring is predominantly white and Asian I can see the percentages could be even higher in areas not so white and Asian.

I doubt that many of the white and Asian thugs go into predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods to do their street crime shit. What's Al's take on the figures?

I really don't care what his take is. He's part of the problem also.

Felix Hoenikker

Whae da white wimmin at?

ides_of_march

Yeah, like a cop on the beat frisking Bernie Madoff is going to immediately figure out he's running an elaborate ponzi scheme and stashing billions in Swiss bank accounts and slap the cuffs on him right there.

JenChungsBaby

Something's wrong here. The text says that 10 percent of stop-and-frisks were of whites but the chart shows that it's more like 30 or 40 percent. And the text says that blacks and latinos were 80 percent of stops while the chart shows they were only around 50 percent. Who does the cockamamie charts around here anyway?

JacqueMehoff

they should do random searches, wasn't there a story

last week of the guy who shot another guy for blocking the driveway? I bet you'll find lots of guns in the white areas of Staten Island or Bay Ridge.

UnrepentantFenian

Are you insinuating that shooting someone for obstructing your driveway is unwarranted?

JacqueMehoff

no, but there was a story last week of a thug

who shot a guy just because he asked him to not block his driveway. this white guy had a gun on him, in fact, I think

the victim's brother yelled, He's got a gun!

and, what does insinuating mean? is that like the firearm in your avatar?

UnrepentantFenian

I'm just saying that if I come home and find someone in my driveway they better run like their life depends on it, because it does.

babyhitler

Don't these cops watch Law & Order? all the criminals are white. Look! there goes Bernie Madoff with 50 billion tucked underneath his arm..

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

if the police really want to reduce crime then they should do RANDOM searches because they all people will be on their guards.