NY1 Reports: The NYPD defended a report Tuesday that shows a record number of New Yorkers being questioned and frisked this year.
The New York Civil Liberties Union released the report of police data, which shows more than 170,000 people were stopped in the first three months of the year.
The police department is required to keep track of the number of Stop-and-Frisk reports.
The NYCLU says about 90 percent of those stopped were innocent and let go. The group also says the program unfairly targets minorities.
“What we have is an incredible racial disparity in who, in New York, has to worry about walking down the street and getting stopped for doing absolutely nothing wrong, by the police,” said Donna Lieberman of the New York City Civil Liberties Union.
“Stop and frisks have been going up for the past three years and the reason is because they work,” said City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. “They are a large part of the reason that crime continues to go down despite the fact that we have 5,000 less officers than we did in 2001. They are the only way, one of the only ways to stop crimes before they happen.”
The NYPD says the racial breakdown matches up to descriptions given by crime victims.
The department claims the high number of officers makes it easier for them to observe possible criminal activity.
The NYPD says they make about 400,000 arrests each year, so the quarterly number in the report is reasonable.
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2 Responses
They have nothing to defend. This is how you catch terrorists. If the federal government is not going to to do the job than at least the NYPD!
They are really disgusting. I don’t care if it works,they have no right to question innocent people. If they are trying to catch a criminal they should investigate in the matter before interogating someone about something that he/she doesn’t even know happend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!