ThinkProgress has a list of 10 things you should know about the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy. Some of them have been reported here before, but there are a few new ones as well. And as they point out, the numbers on racial bias are even more stark when you compare the number of black and Latino men who are stopped (and it’s almost always men).
1. In 2011, NYC officers made 685,724 stops as part of the “stop-and-frisk” policy. Of that group, 605,328 people were determined not to have engaged in any unlawful behavior. [NYCLU]
2. Only 5.37% of all stops in a recent five-year period resulted in an arrest. In short, many people stopped did nothing wrong. [NYT, 5/17/12]
3. In 2009, 36% of the time officer failed to list an acceptable “suspected crime.” Reasonable suspicion of a crime is required to make a stop. [NYT,5/17/12]
4. More than half of all stops last year were conducted “because the individual displayed ‘furtive movement’ — which is so vague as to be meaningless.”[NYT, 5/14/12]
5. Of those frisked in 2011, a weapon was found just 1.9% of the time. Frisks are supposed to be conducted “only when an officer reasonably suspects the person has a weapon.” [NYCLU]
6. 85% of those stopped were black or Hispanic even though those groups make up about half of NYC’s population. [NYT, 5/17/12]
7. Young black and Latino men account for 4.7% of NYC’s population but 41.6% of the stops in 2011. [NYCLU]
8. The number of stops involving young black men in 2011 (168,124) exceed the city’s population of young black men (158,406).[NYT, 5/15/12]
9. Even in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods, police stopped more blacks than whites.[NYT, 5/15/12]
10. In 2012, police are on pace to make more than 800,000 stops, more than twice the population of Miami. [NYT, 5/15/12]
8 comments
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marcus
June 13, 2012 at 1:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If you are stopped by a policeman conducting this kind of unconstitutional search, politely and respectfully let the officer know that you are not giving permission to be searched.
Do not resist!
If asked why just say you’s rather not.
Hopefully the courts will shut this illegal search and seizure activity down.
wscott
June 13, 2012 at 1:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wow. That stat alone is pretty terrifying!
D. C. Sessions
June 13, 2012 at 2:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hardly surprising — the whites belong there, the blacks obviously do not.
hkdharmon
June 13, 2012 at 3:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My roommate is black, and he commutes to work by bicycle here in Sacramento, CA. He complained at least ten times over the course of the first few months of his job that he had been stopped, asked for ID, and questioned by the SAME POLICE officer on his way back and forth to work.
The officer would never tell him why he had stopped him or what he might have done wrong. When he asked “Don’t you recognize me? You stopped me just last week.” the officer claimed he did not recognize him, which suggests he was not even paying attention to who he was.
Was he just following a policy of stopping black guys on bikes to make sure they knew they were being watched?
David C Brayton
June 13, 2012 at 3:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@hdkharmon–Clearly illegal assuming those facts are true. He should carry a GoPro camera next time. and afterwards talk to a lawyer, maybe ever an ACLU lawyer.
marcus
June 13, 2012 at 4:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
hkdharmon @4 “Was he just following a policy of stopping black guys on bikes to make sure they knew they were being watched?”
Well that’s probably part of it.
Mostly he jes’ doesn’t like seein’ black folks ridin’ ’round on bicycles like they wuz white or sumthin’, jes kinda sticks in his craw.
He really would like to discourage that kind of behavior.
maethor
June 14, 2012 at 8:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Here’s a short documentary about the policy in NYC: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/06/12/opinion/100000001601732/the-scars-of-stop-and-frisk.html
keith
June 14, 2012 at 9:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I am a white male who has lived in NY for 10 years now. I have never been stopped, much less frisked. All of my black male coworkers have though, usually several times. Anecdotally, it seems that the stop and frisk tactics sem not only to be targeted at blacks and hispanics, but also lower income neighborhoods.
So of you are black, male and poor, expect to be stopped. Black, male and middle class, not as much.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of stops by neighborhood. I suspect that it would verify my anecdotal stories.