NYPD Defends Soaring Stop and Frisk Numbers

After the NYCLU called attention to a record-breaking number of NYPD stop and frisks for the first three months of 2009, the department's spokesman is out defending the stats [pdf], which reveal—shocker—a continued emphasis on targeting blacks and Latinos. And at the going rate, the NYPD will stop and frisk 626,767 suspects in 2009, which would shatter the current record of 531,159, set in 2008. But police spokesman Paul J. Browne reassures the Times, "In a city where police make 400,000 arrests annually based on the higher standard of probable cause, 500,000 stops annually is not unreasonable...We believe that there is a relationship between stops and crime prevention, although you can't document crimes that did not occur as a result of stops involving suspicious activity." Ah, he has us with that koan, which is sort of like the sound of one hand cuffing. Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. also has the NYPD's back, telling reporters, "Stop and frisks have been going up for the past three years and the reason is because they work." The Constitution's nice and quaint, but whatever works, right?

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By John Del Signore in News on May 13, 2009 10:39 AM

Comments [rss]

r1b2

I don't mind all the frisking, but constantly being stopped is inconvenient.

r1b2

I don't mind all the frisking, but constantly being stopped is inconvenient.

books

I'm white, a month ago after making a wrong when lost was was frisked and my car searched....Its was probably because I was wearing jogging pants and looked messy. They let me off and I was grateful, but you know that shouldn't happen. This is not america.

endoubleu

Sure, race is an issue here, but in my experience, cops are assholes to white people too. Maybe we should focus on training NYPD to not be assholes.

And don't get me wrong, I value the importance of law enforcement. Show me an NYC police officer that isn't an asshole and I'll shake his hand and tell him what a good job he/she is doing. I just have yet to meet such an individual.

Spirit of 76

"We believe that there is a relationship between stops and crime prevention,"

Well, why not stop everybody everywhere in that case? You'd prevent even more crime, then, wouldn't you? And the ends obviously justify the means.

al oof

they would catch a lot of drug users if they stopped all the college aged white kids in lower manhattan.

Novanglus

Also keep in mind that some of those getting frisked and released uncharged are in most cases....friends with and standing right next to someone who WAS charged, so they may have been a part of the reason they were stopped to begin with.

Unless you go case by case, people shouldn't assume that there is not probable cause for these searches. That's just unfair bias against law enforcement.

I'm also getting tired of the minority card. Maybe it is a fact that there are more street criminals that are of black and hispanic origin. Maybe certain high-crime neighborhoods happen to be areas where said minorities live. Unfortunate, but a fact of life here in NYC.

I've been stopped and searched before. Though there may not have been "probable" cause that a crime was being committed, there was always a variable that I can understand made police concerned or suspicious (where I was walking, at a certain time, varying from the environment around me, etc.).

Rob T Firefly

where I was walking,
Is it private property rather than public? If not, then you have every right to be there.

at a certain time,
Were you in a park that closes at dark, after dark? If not, then you have every right to be there.

varying from the environment around me,
Exactly when was camouflage signed into law? Should I be belly-crawling and somersaulting from shadow to shadow?

Internet Handle

Nice.

JacqueMehoff

No.

barryap

As I pointed out yesterday, the stop-and-frisks in the first three months of 2009 led to 20,000 people being charged (1 in 8 of those stopped). So obviously it is working. But is there a better way?

The question is, is it worth 7 people to be inconvenienced/humiliated/oppressed to get one criminal off the streets?

Qraymond

And the answer is "It doesn't matter, because the policy is unconstitutional. If you want to implement this legally, you need to amend the Constitution."

I would have also accepted "Peter Vallone Jr. always has, and always will be a jackass."