Stop-and-frisk is an issue around the nation, but one city remains known for the practice more than others: New York City. It’s the place where the discriminatory police tactic, which was used to target Black people on the streets, was ordered to stop under court supervision, but new data shows this isn’t quite how things have played out.
The New York Daily News found that the NYPD “conducted 13,459 stop-and-frisks last year - 2,451 more than in 2018.” According to data, this police force increased their stop numbers by a little more than 20% between 2018 and 2019. But there’s more to these numbers than meets the eye.
Even though the stops have increased, there are far fewer of them than in the days the practice was in its prime, with nearly 200,000 stops by the time it was ordered to stop in 2013. The issue is, the stops shouldn’t be happening AT ALL.
It’s also been reported that the NYPD is using gang databases as a cover to continue the practice. This method relies on racial profiling, as well, and largely targets Black people as well.
Racist policing has always been a problem for Black people, but we know that stop-and-frisk shouldn’t continue, especially since the court ordered it to stop. If the numbers keep going up in New York City, that’s a slap in the face we simply CANNOT ignore without a fight.