Police stopped and questioned more New Yorkers last year than ever before, and 87 percent of those stopped were black or Latino. The NYPD used the controversial policing technique to question 575,304 people in 2009—an uptick of 8 percent from the short-lived 2008 record of 531,159, according to the Daily News.

The record number of stops shows the NYPD's continued reliance on stop-and-frisks, despite criticism from opponents who say the policy is unconstitutional and promotes the use of racial profiling. Police maintain that the number of stops continues to increase because "there is a relationship between stops and crime prevention." Last year, about 57 percent of those stopped were frisked, 6 percent were arrested, and another 6 percent received summonses.

Police recently implemented a policy of telling those questioned "the reason, or reasons" why they were subjected to pat-downs.