By: Ria Sodhi
Volume IX – Issue I – Fall 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court declared in Terry v. Ohio in 1968 that police may stop and frisk a citizen if they had a "reasonable suspicion" that a crime had been committed. Stop-and-frisk is a tactic the New York City Police Department uses to briefly detain, interrogate, and occasionally search bystanders and suspects on the street for weapons and other contraband. The program has always been controversial, even after adjusting for precinct variability and estimates of criminal participation specific to particular races; research demonstrates that people of African and Hispanic origin are stopped more frequently than white people. Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, supported stop and frisk in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News before assuming office. According to Adams, stop and frisk can be effectively employed to reduce crime without compromising individual freedoms or human rights. Adams believed that the real debate was how to implement stop, question, and frisk rather than whether it should be permitted. He believes those who advocated outlawing it completely simplified a complex subject to an either-or choice and unwisely responded with a general ban. This paper will argue that Mayor Adams is overlooking the inherent biases in our society and policing, which has proven that stop and frisk is ineffective, and Adams’ proposed changes are simply another aspect of police reform that has occurred in the past and has not been widely successful. This continues to reinforce injustice, exacerbate relationships between police and communities, and put lives at risk.
Systemic racism is profoundly ingrained in American society and is not just a thing of the past. In Charles R. Epp's paper Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship, he argues that racial discrimination, especially when it comes to stop and frisk, is embedded in our history and society. According to Epp, racial minorities are stopped at significantly higher rates than whites. They are also considerably more likely to think the stop was unfair and have a high level of mistrust for the police. In essence, police officers stop racial minorities more frequently and treat them more aggressively [1]. Epp bases his writing on the premise that every member of our society, including police officers, are aware of the societal influence of race and the pervasive prejudices of blacks and whites. In the last two decades, systematic practice has replaced random officer-by-officer activity. The practice has grown increasingly prevalent, regular, and racially discriminatory over the past 20 years as police benevolence associations and leaders have deepened their commitment to investigative stops [2]. This practice dates back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, a time of significant institutional improvements, policing reforms, and Crime Control legislation. During that time, there were many complaints about the police, including that they were too isolated and unresponsive to local communities, that all of the officers were white men even when they were policing minority businesses, and that the officers used violence and insulted people they had stopped [3]. Recent research demonstrates how some racial inequities are caused by government regulations, reflecting and reinforcing racial preconceptions. When institutionalized procedures develop from and perpetuate unfavorable racial prejudices, they are racially framed. People's perceptions are influenced by these preconceptions, but frequently in subtle ways. Even those who are against racism frequently and favorably view other individuals and behave in racially stereotyped ways. It is hard to dismiss inert biases and perceive the world for how it is. Our relationships, religion, education, etc., all play a role in how we see the world and judge others. Getting rid of that type of bias is not just a change in stop and frisk but a change in perception, education, and even generations.
Not only is it difficult to alter stop and frisk because of bias, but studies show that stop and frisk does not work. To raise the quality of life in 28 cities, the State of New Jersey launched the "Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program" (also known as Broken Windows) in the middle of the 1970s. The state provided funding to towns as part of that plan so they could designate police officers to walk beats rather than keeping them in patrol cars. Five years after the program's beginning, The Police Foundation in Washington, D.C., issued an evaluation of the foot-patrol experiment. To no one's surprise, the foundation's analysis led them to conclude that foot patrol had not reduced crime rates. However, people who resided in the neighborhoods with foot patrols appeared to feel safer than those who did not, had a tendency to believe that crime had decreased and seemed to take fewer preventative measures [4]. The question remains though can a place be "safer" if crime hasn't gone down and might even go up?
Despite its extensive application, Broken Windows enforcement has not consistently been shown to reduce overall crime [5]. There is little evidence that actively pursuing minor transgressions, especially with an arrest, successfully lowers or prevents more serious crime, according to a detailed study done by the National Research Council [6]. The police's "order-maintenance" mission was effectively fulfilled to the satisfaction of all parties, despite the fact that the neighborhoods were predominantly black and the foot patrolmen were generally white. However, some aspects of Broken Windows demonstrate that there are downsides to using this type of policing. For starters, fear makes people avoid one another, which makes laws less effective. People occasionally make police calls. Despite the presence of patrol cars and the occasional arrest, crime and disorder do not go down [7]. When the public complained to the police chief, he responded by noting that his department is understaffed and that small or first-time offenders are not subject to the legal system's sanctions [8]. The Broken Windows initiative initially encouraged more interactions with the community but not necessarily more arrests or citations.
Adams argued that stop and frisk and how police officers attack stop and frisk should be amended rather than expelled completely, but it hasn't been entirely successful, and there have been drawbacks. While this is an optimistic idea, we have tried to reform policing in the past, and Eight years ago, the police-involved killings of black men in Staten Island (Eric Garner) and Ferguson, Missouri (Michael Brown) triggered nationwide protests. As a result of America's unfinished racial equality quest, the upheavals over the ensuing 24 months called attention to the Great Divide, as some criminologists refer to the distance between the police and many minority areas [9]. Precision policing is a tactic developed by coauthors Bratton and Murad. During Bratton's second term as police commissioner of New York City, which spanned from 2014 to 2016, and that is when the NYPD put this tactic into effect. It assists the NYPD in setting new benchmarks for crime prevention and legitimacy as a force in the community [10]. The new method of thinking, precision policing, has two basic objectives. Computers were used by CompStat to map and track crime, and it then gathers police leaders to make sure that resources are being used effectively to combat crime and that crime is zealously avoided moving forward. The first objective was to obtain a new version of the CompStat technology for the first targeted enforcement against crime and disturbance [11]. The second objective was that targeted crime-and-disorder enforcement, as opposed to neighborhood policing, engages the great majority of residents and builds communities. By incorporating the approaches into the core of patrol work rather than considering them as a support role, precision policing increases police legitimacy and ensures that the police engage in meaningful community engagement [12]. Connectivity is used by police more frequently than enforcement, and when enforcement is required, it is focused accurately, thanks to precision policing. Precision policing also tries to make every engagement between the police and the general public collaborative.
In actuality, precision policing is aiding in the control of crime and disruption, but there are some things to watch out for. To start, loosening up quality-of-life regulations does not mean eliminating them altogether [13]. Expressing alarm over recent developments in New York that criminalize infractions like not paying for the subway and using marijuana in public and calling attention to recent increases in crime in categories that should be viewed as red flags. Second, given the disproportionate number of black people who commit and are victims of violent crime in America's major cities, focused enforcement may soon come under fire for its perceived discriminatory effects [14]. However, even if there are fewer crimes, there is an anticipation that these ratios will change as community policing creates communities. Also, since its implementation, the relationship between police and communities has significantly weakened. The Black Lives Matter movement was founded in 2013 and has been growing stronger, especially after the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. The growing mistrust in the police has grown to the point that in 2020 there were protests and riots not only across the country but worldwide. Although most demonstrations were peaceful, certain cities saw riots, looting, and street fights between police and opposing protesters. When there were protests, some police reacted violently, including some targeting reporters. By early June 2020, curfews had been implemented in at least 200 American cities, and over 96,000 National Guard, State Guard, 82nd Airborne, and 3rd Infantry Regiment personnel had been activated in more than 30 states and Washington, D.C [15]. There was ample talk about defunding the police and reforming the police as a whole. These protests were about protesting police brutality, and yet we have videos of the police responding with the same brutality, using tear gas and rubber bullets to harm innocent people.
Mayor Adams is, as Political Scientist Murray Edelman would explain, a condensation symbol. Condensation symbols and images arouse feelings connected to an event. They unite into one symbolic deed, event, or sentiments of patriotism, anxiety, memories of past triumphs or humiliations, and promises of future greatness—some of these or all [16]. Mayor Adams is evoking hope for stop and frisk. As someone who has the power as mayor and someone with policing experience, he is optimistic about the future of stop and frisk, and he wants others to be as well. He recounts how bravely those police officers stepped into the line of fire and how their bravery is why stop and frisk works. While I agree that Mayor Adams is trying to use symbolic manipulation, I do not believe it is effective because no matter what Mayor Adams says about stop and frisk, Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York and a leader of the American police union, will overthrow all that hope, because Lynch, to please people, upfront talks about how he is actively against stop and frisk but also advocates for it strongly. The stop-and-frisk tactics that Michael Bloomberg supported and strengthened while serving as mayor of New York City were one of the problems that defined his administration. However, in 2019, Bloomberg changed his mind on this issue. Police stopped and frisked hundreds of thousands of mostly minority individuals on the street in order to search them for weapons or illegal substances. A staggering 88% of the searches did not result in an arrest, indicating that most people approached by police and interrogated had not broken any laws [17]. Patrick Lynch criticized former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg calling the practice that police used for years a "misguided strategy" that put officers in danger. According to Patrick Lynch, president of the union, Mayor Bloomberg could have avoided this apology if he had just listened to the police officers on the street [18]. Since the early 2000s, the union warned that the emphasis placed on street stops to meet quotas was tainting the relationship between police and the communities they served [19]. The flawed policies of his administration gave rise to an anti-police movement that has turned officers into targets of hatred and violence and taken away many of the resources we had been using to keep New Yorkers safe.
These remarks were made by Lynch in 2019-2020, and on the outside, Lynch appears to be against anti-stop and frisk, but with a deeper look at Lynch and his history as the president of the PBA, we can find video evidence of Lynch’s active support. In 2014 Lynch argued that having any reforms would hinder the ability of police officers to do their job and that even though 75% of the people voted for a mayor who is against stop and frisk, police officers must have the ability to do their job so that the voters can be safe [20]. Lynch is implying that stop and frisk needs to be a method officers can use and just further implies that reforming stop and frisk is not going to happen. After the death of Eric Garner, Lynch gave a talk where he claimed that the chokehold that killed Garner was not illegal. Lynch supported the officer claiming that they just did what “they were trained to do” in that type of situation, implying that if Garner had not resisted arrest, this death could have been avoided [21]. Lynch’s adamant support for stop and frisk will trump any hope Adams has for stop and frisk reform because of the horrid stories we have heard and seen, for example, the story of Eric Garner.
On a July day on Staten Island, Eric Garner was stumbling along a sidewalk when an unmarked police cruiser approached. The plainclothes cops inside were familiar with Mr. Garner because he frequently sold untaxed cigarettes close to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. They were also recognized by Mr. Garner. At least among those selling smokes and cheap things along that section of Bay Street near Tompkinsville Park, everyone did. According to two witnesses, Mr. Garner, 43, yelled at the officers to back off as they drew near [22]. He swung his arms about. He objected to being held or searched. In the same area that year, he had previously been detained twice. On the first interaction, he received a warning from the authorities, but he would be stopped again on Thursday, July 17, later in the same month. One of the policemen, Justin Damico, returned with a different partner, Daniel Pantaleo. A friend of Mr. Garner was recording the confrontation on his iPhone as they pushed in, and the video would soon be seen by millions of people. This meeting was not a coincidence. It was the result of a police plan to combat the kind of disruption that Mr. Garner, in their eyes, represented [23]. He lay still in handcuffs on the ground without receiving timely help, and the apparent protocol violations led to a state investigation. The crucial fact that catapulted the deadly arrest into the public consciousness — that a police officer had put his arm around Mr. Garner's neck, was overlooked in the first official police report on his death. Stories like Mr.Garners have only increased as time has continued. According to the NYPD's Annual Reports, 8,947 stops were made in 2021, and 5,422 were innocent people (61 percent). Out of the 8,947 stops, 5,404 were Black [24].
While the claim that stop and frisk are ineffective has been made, you could counter that while the program needs to be improved, having it in place is preferable to having none. Since 2019, the number of stop-and-frisk cases has decreased. Going from 13,459 stops to 8,947 in 2021 [25]. In addition, the implementation of precision policing has actually aided the control of crime and disruption. In the Broken Windows theory, the people in those neighborhoods' foot-patrolled areas felt safer and calmer. Even that sense of safety can greatly reduce the number of stops and frisks. There are also instances in which just following the description of the suspect has proven successful. Mayor Adams told us the story himself. When officers Officers Alejandra Jacobs and Robert Holmes went up to the suspect, he immediately shot at them; if these officers had not responded, civilians could have gotten hurt. Due to these officers' heroic strengths, another gun was taken off the streets, and another threat was neutralized [26].
In conclusion, reform is nearly impossible to implement. For years we have tried to set rules and laws amending and prohibiting aspects of stop and frisk, and we see time and time again those rules being discarded. The chokehold that killed Eric Garner had already been set as illegal by the NYPD. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) prohibited police officers from using chokeholds in 1993. That was a reform made to protect both the police and citizens, yet officers have blatantly ignored the rule. That similar chokehold was also used to kill George Floyd in 2020. By trying to implement the same reform over and over again, stop and frisk won't change. Mayor Adams hopes for new reform, but as history has shown, it appears these are simply going to be more of the same old reforms we have already seen, not helping our society at all and possibly doing more harm than good.
Endnotes
[1] Mastracci, Sharon. “Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship, by Charles R. Epp, Stephen Maynard-Moody, and Donald P. Haider-Markel: Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship, by Charles R. Epp, Stephen Maynard-Moody, and Donald P. Haider-Markel. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2014, 253 Pages, ISBN: 9780226113999.” International Public Management Journal 21, no. 2 (March 15, 2018): 326–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2018.1432193,3
[2] Ibid at 9.
[3] Ibid at 10
[4] Kelling, George L., and James Q. Wilson. “Broken Windows.” The Atlantic, March 1, 1982. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America, Vera Institute,22
[7] Kelling, George L., and James Q. Wilson. “Broken Windows.” The Atlantic, March 1, 1982. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/.
[8] Ibid.
[9] City Journal. “Precision Policing.” Accessed December 3, 2023. https://www.city-journal.org/article/precision-policing/.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] City Journal. “Precision Policing.” Accessed December 3, 2023. https://www.city-journal.org/article/precision-policing/.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] AP News. “Timeline of Events since George Floyd’s Arrest and Murder,” January 20, 2022. https://apnews.com/article/george-floyd-death-timeline-2f9abbe6497c2fa4adaebb92ae179dc6.
[16] Edelman, Murray J. The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Illini books ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.Pg.6
[17] Baker, Al, J. David Goodman, and Benjamin Mueller. “Beyond the Chokehold: The Path to Eric Garner’s Death.” The New York Times, June 13, 2015, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/nyregion/eric-garner-police-chokehold-staten-island.html.
[18] Baker, Al, J. David Goodman, and Benjamin Mueller. “Beyond the Chokehold: The Path to Eric Garner’s Death.” The New York Times, June 13, 2015, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/nyregion/eric-garner-police-chokehold-staten-island.html.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Pat Lynch on next police commissioner, union's motion in "stop-and-frisk" case, Youtube,1:10
[21] Section Slides 10/28, slide 11
[22] Baker, Al, J. David Goodman, and Benjamin Mueller. “Beyond the Chokehold: The Path to Eric Garner’s Death.” The New York Times, June 13, 2015, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/nyregion/eric-garner-police-chokehold-staten-island.html.
[23] Ibid.
[24] “Stop-and-Frisk Data | New York Civil Liberties Union | ACLU of New York,” January 2, 2012. https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data.
[25] “Stop-and-Frisk Data | New York Civil Liberties Union | ACLU of New York,” January 2, 2012. https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data.
[26] Ibid.