The NYPD police "Stop & Frisk" activity shows an increase in the number of NY residents being stopped are minorities being targeted?
So-called ‘stop-and-frisk’ activity is on the rise, according to numbers released by city police, who this year recorded the highest-ever number of quarterly stops in which people were questioned and sometimes frisked.
From January 1 until March 31, New York Police Department officers filed 183,326 “stop, question and frisk” reports, a number that is up sharply over the same period a year earlier and the highest number recorded since the city began publicly releasing information on stop-and-frisk activity in 2004. The previous quarterly high was in the first quarter of 2009, when officers recorded 171,094 stops.
The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy has come under fire from civil rights advocates because a small percentage of stops have led to charges. Data on stops show that blacks are disproportionately stopped by police.
For the first quarter of this year, 11,925 of those stopped were arrested and another 10,292 were issued criminal summonses, meaning that 12.1% of stops led to charges or arrests, a slight decline from the same period a year earlier.
The latest numbers show the racial breakdown of those stopped closely mirrors the percentages of stops made in the past.
Over the first quarter, 50.6% of those stopped were black, 26.6% where categorized as white Hispanic, 9.2% were white, 6.8% were black Hispanic and 3.7% were Asian. Last year for the first quarter, 53.3% were black, 25.7% were white Hispanic, 9.2% were white, 6.1% were black Hispanic and 3.1% were Asian. According to the 2010 census, 33% of New York City’s population is white, 29% Hispanic, 23% black and 13% Asian.
The NYPD asserts that the descriptions of criminal suspects, and not overall population demographics, guide its decisions on whom to stop, and when. The police have also said they believe the practice has helped them reduce the city’s crime rate.
Link:
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/05/31/nypd-stop-and-frisk-activity-on-the-rise/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=WSJ_NY_NY_Blog