Ever since the New York Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy was ruled unconstitutional back in 2013, the city’s been trying to shrink the number of stops officers make and avoid disproportionately targeting people of color. Now a new report suggests the department’s made some significant progress over the past couple years by cutting down on reported street stops, but it’s still stopping racial minorities more than whites.
The report, released Tuesday by a court-appointed monitor, looked at the number of reported stops from 2013 to 2015, the New York Times reports. It found that the number of total stops citywide had dropped by more than 95 percent—from roughly 191,000 in 2013 to about 22,000 in 2015. Plus, the department became more efficient by stopping fewer innocent people and only more people only suspected of committing serious crimes.
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But the NYPD is still disproportionately targeting racial minorities. Although the report found the racial disparity in stops was “trending in the right direction,” cops still stopped to search blacks and Hispanics more than any other racial group.
Over that three year period, the proportion of blacks stopped by NYPD officers remained relatively steady at about 53 percent, while Hispanics accounted for roughly 29 percent of stops. Whites accounted for just 11 percent. Additionally, the report found blacks and Hispanics were more likely to be subjected to force than their white and non-Hispanic counterparts.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)—a plaintiff in the case that wound up deeming stop-and-frisk unconstitutional—issued a press release stating that though “some progress has been made,” the results of the report aren’t great.
“The severe racial disparities in who gets stopped persist,” the CRR wrote. “The NYPD still has much work to do to end racial bias in its stop-and-frisk practices.
For advocates like the Communities United for Police Reform (CUPR), however, the results of the report don’t represent meaningful change.
“[They] only serve to uphold what is far more than a tale, but a reality of two cities,” CUPR told the New York Daily News. “New Yorkers have vastly different experiences with policing determined by their race.”
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