Scrutiny Mounts As NYPD 'Stop-and-Frisk' Searches Hit Record High

By Ryan Devereaux, Guardian UK

15 February 12

olice in New York City stopped and questioned a record-breaking 684,330 people last year. The figure represents an increase of over 600% since the controversial practice of stop, question and search – commonly known as stop-and-frisks – began in 2002.

The vast majority people who were stopped in 2011 – and in every year since the policy began – were African American or Latino. Last year's total marks an increase of 14% from 2010. True to previous years, most of those stopped were not arrested. In 2011 just 12% of those stopped received summonses, down from 14% in 2010.

The figures were tallied by the New York Civil Liberties Union as part of the organization's ongoing effort to monitor NYPD stop-and-frisks. New York's city council began requiring the department to deliver quarterly stop-and-frisk totals in 2002. According to the NYCLU, the total number of stop-and-frisks have increased every year since 2004, with the exception 2007. In that time over four million people – the overwhelming majority being people of color – have been stopped by the police.

Of those stopped last year, 92% were male and 87% were African American or Latino.

The police department defends the policy by pointing to a reduction in murders over the last 10 years since Mayor Michael Bloomberg came into office. According to NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Browne the police recovered 8,263 weapons as a result of last year's stops, including 819 guns.

"One would think that as crime goes down, the incidents of stop-and-frisks would diminish but that has not been the case at all," says Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Lieberman notes that the opposite has been true. "There's been almost almost an inverse relationship between crime and stop-and-frisk activity, and the stop-and-frisk numbers are through the roof."

"The kind of work that needs to be done requires deploying police officers in communities with the mandate to serve their communities, to get to know the communities, be on foot patrols, to try to ferret out crime based on suspicious behavior, not based on the color of people's skin and not based on the statistics in the community. Crime statistics are important but crime statistics don't provide a justification to stop you or me in particular."

According to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the body responsible for holding the department accountable, the practice of NYPD stop-and-frisks generates 7,500 complaints per year. Since 2005, stop-and-frisk complaints have accounted for one third of all complaints against the NYPD.

In the city's African American and Latino communities, residents say the policy criminalizes young people and fosters a sense of fear and distrust towards the police.

Lieberman says that in 2010 she noted a disproportionate concentration of NYPD stop-and-frisks among young men of color: "African American and Latino men between the ages of 14 and 24 are 7.2% of the population and 41% of police stop-and-frisks."

Patrick Jones, a 25 year-old African American living in the Bronx, was first stopped by the police at age 12 while hanging out near an NYPD precinct. At the time motorcycles were being stolen out of a police garage, and officers accused Jones of the crime. He was handcuffed, taken to the precinct, questioned and released without charge.

Jones has dealt with police stop-and-frisks ever since. Many of those encounters, he says, have resulted in beatings.

When asked what age stop-and-frisks tend to begin for residents of his neighborhood Jones was frank, "Soon as you're able to go outside on your own. It doesn't matter how old you are."

Jones says young people in his area are targeted for little more than their appearance. "We're kids from the hood. We dress a certain way. We have certain things that we do, so we all look like criminals to them."

"Sometimes they just sweep people," he explained. "There are a bunch of people just standing somewhere; sweep. Somebody's gotta have something. Nine times out of ten they're right."