Verified Document

Impact Of Stop Frisk Policy In New York Essay

Related Topics:

NYPD Stop Frisk Policy and its Statistical Racial ImpactsThe NYPD (NY Police Department) stop and frisk policy is a policy introduced by the New York City mandating the police officers to stop pedestrians and frisks them for contraband, and weapons. The rules are cited in the Section 140.50 in the New York criminal procedure law. In 2011, the NY police force used the frisk policy rule to stop approximately 685,724 people, however, the number reduced to 22,939 in 2015. The policy has become a controversial issue because over 5 million people were frisked during the first decade after introducing the policy. In 2002, the numbers of the reported cases were 685,724 in 2011 before slashing down to 533,042 in 2012. The goal of stop and frisk policy is to reduce the incidence of violent crimes and keep guns off the street to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers. By adopting the frisk policy, the New York City administrators have been able to reduce the crime rate substantially over the last 20 years. Despite the benefits of the stop and frisk policy, large percentages of people stopped and frisked are African-Americans and Latinos. Moreover, only 5.9% of people frisked in 2011 led to an arrest and 2% led to a weapon recovery.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of NYPD stop-frisk policy and examine the statistical racial impact of the policy.

Impact NYPD Stop-Frisk Policy

Stop and Frisk is a New York police practice of searching or frisking people. Under the law, a police officer has no right to stop an individual for a search without having a substantial proof or reasonable suspicion that the person is engaging or about to engage in a criminal activity. However, frisking is legally permitted in New York where police officers have the right to search an individual if they believe that the person...

New York state law allows police officers to use a standardized form to record the reason for the arrest. Within 10 years of adopting the policy, the stop and frisk policy has grown at an astonishing rate and reached its peak in 2010.
Stops and frisks policy have a profound impact on individuals that include abusive behaviors by police, inappropriate touching, forcibly stripped of people under clothes in public, sexual harassment, extortion of sex, and other degrading and humiliating treatments. While 9 out 10 people stopped and frisks never result in an arrest, however, all people frisked are obliged to cope with psychological, emotional and social trauma resulted from the frisk policy.

Sexual harassment and inappropriate touching are the major impacts of stop and frisk policy. Typically, some police officers go to the extent of frisk the private parts, underwear and people's rectal to verify if they do not hide the drug there. This type of frisk can be highly embarrassing for people especially when a male police officer stops and frisks the private parts of a female suspect. (Wendy, 2012). A number of people at Manhattan in New York affirmed that when police officers stopped them for a frisk, they were sexually harassed, inappropriately touched, and sexually assaulted. Some people also confirmed that some police officers touched their genitals during the frisks, sometimes asked them to remove their clothes in public. A deplorable thing is that if people speak against inappropriate touching, they can be charged with resisting arrest. The issue makes many people feel violated and disrespected. humiliated, shameful and harassed. (Wendy, 2012).

The police brutality has been identified as another impact of stops and frisks leading to an ever present of police violence. In the New…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Louisiana: Race Relations During Reconstruction and Race
Words: 1312 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

Louisiana: Race Relations During Reconstruction Reconstruction and Race Relations Louisiana: A Case Study in Race Relations during Reconstruction Louisiana: A Case Study in Race Relations during Reconstruction Southern Louisiana during the Civil War was quickly occupied by Union troops and the slaves began to flee plantations to Union-controlled cities like New Orleans and Natchez (Steedman, 2009). The influx created problems for the Army since they were both wartime refugees and de facto free, despite

Overcrowding in Prisons: Impacts on African-Americans the
Words: 2391 Length: 8 Document Type: Research Paper

Overcrowding in Prisons: Impacts on African-Americans The overcrowded prisons in the United States are heavily populated by African-Americans, many of them incarcerated due to petty, non-violent crimes such as drug dealing. This paper points out that not only are today's prisons overcrowded, the fact of their being overcrowded negatively impacts the African-American community above and beyond the individuals who are locked up. This paper also points to the racist-themed legislation that

Social Problems That Exist Because of Crime
Words: 1887 Length: 5 Document Type: Research Paper

Stop and Frisk as it Relates to Race and Social Class Despite living in the Land of the Free, some Americans on the public streets are still being singled out by law enforcement authorities for questioning and searches based on race and social class. In what is termed a "stop and frisk," police have detained and searched ordinary citizens for no other crime than being a minority or poor. In mid-1968,

Fourth Amendment Implications of Non-Arrest Detentions
Words: 1717 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Stop and Frisk In theory, a stop and frisk is "A brief, non-intrusive, police stop of a suspect." (Legal Information Institute, N.p.) These detentions can comply with Fourth Amendment standards under very specific circumstances. "The Fourth Amendment requires that the police have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed before stopping a suspect. If the police reasonably suspect the person is armed

Landmark 4th and 5th Amendment
Words: 1329 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

On appeal, Terry argued that the conviction should be thrown out because the search that produced the evidence of the weapon in his possession was improper because it was an impermissible search of his person without a warrant or probable cause as required by the 4th Amendment (Schmalleger, 2009). The Supreme Court decided that the type of search the police officer conducted was not prohibited by the 4th Amendment. Instead,

Gun Violence Among African American Community
Words: 2438 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Introduction The Violence Policy Center (2020) notes that African Americans are only 13% of the US population yet they represent more than half of all American homicides; but what is worse is that 87% of African American homicides are killed by guns. It is evident from these statistics that gun violence among the African American community is a real problem. This paper will provide an overview of the problem, who it

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now