The challenge
New York police wanted to get guns off the street and prevent crime.
The case
In the 2000s the New York Police Department dramatically expanded street stops, peaking at 685,724 in 2011. Most people stopped were young Black and Latino men, and the great majority were not arrested or charged. In 2013 a federal judge ruled the practice unconstitutional as carried out. The NYCLU reported that stops fell 98 percent between 2011 and 2017, yet crime in New York continued to fall, undercutting claims that mass stops were driving the decline.
Why it didn't work
A tactic that damaged trust in communities was not needed to keep crime falling. Focused approaches are more effective and less harmful than mass stops.
Sources
- Floyd v. City of New York, 959 F. Supp. 2d 540 (S.D.N.Y. 2013).
- NYCLU (2019). Stop-and-Frisk in the de Blasio Era.
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