Stop and frisk was a controversial topic throughout the time Michael Bloomberg was the Mayor of New York City. However new Mayor Bill de Blasio and his newly appointed police commissioner Bill Bratton plan to move away from it.
In the first quarter of Mayor de Blasio’s time as Mayor, stops have been reduced by 86 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, from Jan 1st to Mar 31st, there were roughly 14,000 stops in 2014 compared to nearly 100,000 in 2013 during the same time frame.
Back in early August 2013, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan found that the policy was unconstitutional and “a policy of indirect racial profiling.” The city is also planning to settle a class action suit, agreeing to reform the stop-question- and frisk policy.
Bratton said the practice would not be used in a discriminatory way.
“We will not break the law to enforce the law, that’s my solemn promise to every New Yorker, regardless of where they were born, where they live, or what they look like,” he said. “Those values aren’t at odds with keeping New Yorkers safe, they are essential to long term public safety.”
But many people have already been affected by this policy over the years when it was at its height.
The New York Civil Liberties Union reports that nine out of 10 stops end with the person being innocent. Since 2002, over 80 percent of people stopped are either Black or Latino. 2011 had the most stops with 685,724, with 88 percent being black or Latino and more than half being between the ages of 14-21. During this time only 9 percent of people stopped were white, 2 percent lower than its usual percentage of about 11 percent.
Despite these numbers and the drop in stop-and-frisk numbers since de Blasio took office, Bratton believes components of the policy are needed.
Bratton wants to reduce the number of stops by reforming the policy. Previously, he told Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson, it was an overused and a flawed system that relied too much on young inexperienced officers sent into high crime areas.
“You cannot police without it, if you did not have it then you’d have anarchy,” Bratton said.
