About 90 Percent of New Yorkers Stopped and Frisked Were 'Innocent,' Says NYCLU
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday that the New York Police Department did not engage in racial profiling during its controversial stop-and-frisk program. But federal judge Shira Sheindlin ruled that stop and frisk "encouraged the targeting of young black and Hispanic men based on their prevalence in local crime complaints," and was unconstitutional.
Analyzing data released by the NYPD, the New York Civil Liberties Union said that "black and Latino communities continued to be the overwhelming target of these tactics."
In 2012, New Yorkers were stopped by police 532,911 times. In 55 percent of the cases, the suspect was black and in 10 percent of the cases, the suspect was white. In 89 percent of the cases, "the suspect was innocent," said the NYCLU.
Similarly in 2011, 53 percent of New Yorkers who were stopped and frisked by police were black, and 9 percent were white. In 2010, 54 percent of New Yorkers who were stopped and frisked were black, and 9 percent were white.
Approximately 90 percent of New Yorkers who were stopped and frisked between 2010 and 2012 were "totally innocent," according to the NYCLU's analysis.
A spokesman for the NYPD reviewed the numbers the NYCLU used in its analysis and verified them against raw data the NYPD collected from every police precinct in New York City.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city would appeal the federal ruling.
Complete "Stop-and-Frisk" statistics can be found on the New York Civil Liberties Union's website.