NYPD on pace toward stopping record number of people

[The Watchmen]

Despite criticism about overly aggressive tactics, the NYPD appears headed toward stopping and questioning a record number of people this year, according to statistics obtained by Newsday.

The New York Police Department in 2006 stopped 508,540 people - up dramatically from 97,296 in 2002 - sparking a wave of criticism that minorities, mostly black and Hispanic men, were being harassed by police officers.

The total dropped to 468,932 last year, but in the first quarter of this year, 145,098 people were stopped - the highest quarterly total since the NYPD has kept those numbers.

And while the total number of stops has dipped in the second and third quarter this year, there have been 391,008 stops through September, a pace that seems certain to top last year's total and could eclipse the 2006 tally.

Blacks and Hispanics made up about 83 percent of those stopped this year, in line with figures in recent years.

It was not clear how many stops led to frisks - the NYPD does not provide that information - but only about 5.2 percent of those stopped so far this year, 20,352, resulted in arrests.

The NYPD had no comment about the figures but it has said it does not engage in racial profiling, and blacks and Hispanics are stopped and questioned approximate to the percentage of times they are described as suspects by crime victims and witnesses.

But critics note that less than 20 percent of the stops carried out by cops, who are required to fill out UF-250 forms detailing the encounters, are done because the person matches a description.

Officers can stop and question someone for any number of reasons - anything from a furtive movement to wearing a certain type of clothing.

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., head of the Public Safety Committee, says such criticism misses the larger point - that those questioned because they've been described as suspects are usually involved in other incidents, such as when officers suspect they're armed.

But Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, says it's clear innocent minorities are being stopped.

"Our main concern is, quarter after quarter, people are stopped, almost 100,000 blacks and Latinos, almost all of whom have done nothing wrong," Dunn said.

Newsday