Stop and Frisk up in Bronx, but less than in other boroughs: Legal Aid Society

The Legal Aid Society is reporting that while police stop and frisk procedures rose by 22 percent last year, stops in the Bronx rose by a much smaller amount – less than 6 percent, to 2,464 stops. 

The Society condemned the NYPD in a news release for, by its count, conducting 2,451 more stop and frisk procedures city-wide in 2019 than in 2018.  Of those stops, 90 percent involved people of color and 65 percent did not result in an arrest or issuance of a summons, the Society reported. 

“The data confirms what we hear from our clients on a daily basis,” said attorney Corey Stoughton, who heads a special criminal defense litigation unit for the Society. “Despite court rulings that the city’s practices were unlawful, aggressive stop and frisk has made a comeback in New York City.”

The Society was among several groups that challenged the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy in 2013; since then, officers have had to clearly justify the reason for a stop and a court monitoring process was put in place.  More than 680,000 stops were made citywide in 2011; in 2013, that number dropped to 191,558 and in 2019, to 13,459. 

In response, the NYPD said in a statement, “The department has enhanced its auditing and compliance metrics as well as developed training to address stops and proper reporting.  The result is a better understanding of a very complex area of law, correction of common misunderstandings and better reporting.”