Stop and frisk involve an act of initiating stop of a person on the street purportedly by an NYPD officer with a suspicion of violent crime. Suspicion of individuals who put on crime clothes, carry weapons openly, and drug addicts has led to stop and frisk of people by the police which have led to crime reduction.
Police do stop mostly young black and Latino people more than whites because it is justified that blacks are disproportionately involved in violent crimes. In most cases, they are later considered innocent. According to the report of , these young black and Latino comprise of 4.7 percent of the city’s population yet the number of stops is very huge and Ninety percent of them were considered innocent. It means police do doubt people who are not of their race and end up stopping them. In addition, frisking should be done when a police, suspects that civilian has a weapon, yet they end up frisking 55.7 percent of those stopped and only find 1.9 percent of them with a weapon which is a small number.
The argument of supporting this practice is that, it finds criminals when are about to engage in a crime or those who have already committed a crime . This practice has led to reduction of crime where people used to carry weapons and illegally put on military clothes as suggested by one of citizens in New York “There should be more officers on the streets and more stops in minority neighbourhoods because these are the high-crime neighbourhoods.”
This practice has led to racism issue whereby police officers are being engaged to colour selection and mistrust. Since residents have fear of these police officers, there should be policies and procedures and also training of officers, about stop and frisk to ensure fairness of race. Despite racial profiling, stop and frisk has significantly reduced crime and prevented crimes about to happen hence offered public safety.
Works cited
NYCLU. STOP-AND-FRISK 2011. Statistics Report. New York: New York Civil Liberties Union, 2011. Document.
Trone, Jennifer, John Jay. The New York Police Department’s Stop and Frisk Policies Are They Effective? Fair? Appropriate? Forum Report. New York City, 2010. Document.
