Look at everyone on the street. Does someone look dangerous? Do they look suspicious? Stop them. Question them. Does it seem like they have a weapon? Frisk them. Are they resisting? Apply force. This seems like a pretty standard stop and frisk procedure at least in my mind. This tactic, despite it coming from good intentions, is pretty shady. The decision to stop someone on the street because they look “suspicious” is completely at the discretion of the cop. Although there exists a general image of a “suspicious person,” individual cops may have their own image of who they believe is suspicious. It is here that I think the system is flawed. Cops are basically using their own opinion of what they think is suspicious looking, to find people to stop. Having the system all based on judgement, racism and individual beliefs can easily influence a cop’s decision to stop and frisk anyone.
Racial profiling is a very serious issue to confront concerning stop and frisk. The fact that most people stopped happened to be minorities of hispanic or African American descent coupled with the fact that around 90% of them were found to not be carrying any weapon, raises a red flag with the New York community. Cops are blamed for racism when it comes to stopping people on the street. I cannot speak for them, but I believe that they are just using the statistic that many crimes are committed by a hispanic or African American. It would make sense then, for the high number of stopped individuals that happened to be that target race. However, the data study posted did show that more “whites” were found to be carrying weapons through stop and frisk than say hispanics or African Americans. Statistically, this should result in more whites being stopped in order to increase efficiency, no? However, that is not the case, and more aggressive stop and frisks seem to be targeting more and more hispanic and African Americans which I believe to be a travesty for our community.
Also, the Stop and Frisk system has stopped more than 100,000 people in New York. Of those hundreds of thousands, only 1.9% of them happened to have a weapon. Although many people are criticizing this efficiency rate, I think its important to note that that small percentage of people found with guns, ends up being around a thousand individuals. That’s a substantial amount of armed individuals. Of course, there is probably a better way to increase the efficiency of this system. As the system stands today, we are seeing an increase in aggressive stop and frisk encounters with a decreasing success rate. As such, I don’t necessarily agree with the stop and frisk methods that cops are using today. This practice should be more regulated and tweaked to get the performance and efficiency that cops AND citizens desire.
