Essay on The Stop, Question, and Frisk
The issue regarding the Stop, Question, and Frisk program has been wildly discussed in academic literature and the mass media sources. The Stop, Question, and Frisk practiced in New York City by the City Police Department stands for the legal procedure, which requires stop and question thousands of people, as well as frisk them for weapons, drugs and other contraband. In fact, the Stop, Question, and Frisk practices are based on the established laws and regulations that can be found in the Section 140.50 of the New York State Criminal Procedure Law. According to statistical data regarding stop, question and frisk practices, in 2011, 684,330 people were stopped, the majority of them were African-Americans or Latinos (Devereaux, 2012). In this paper, the controversial issues about the Stop, Question, and Frisk practices will be investigated. It is hypothesized that the Stop, Question, and Frisk program fosters racial profiling and leads to discrimination toward African Americans and Latinos. The following eleven literature reviews attempt to demonstrate the hypothesis and provide comprehensive support for it.
In the newspaper article by Ryan Devereaux (2012), several important questions were discussed in relation to the Stop, Question, and Frisk practices. It has been found that in 2011, 684,330 people were stopped, and the majority of them were African-Americans or Latinos (Devereaux, 2012). This fact means the overwhelming majority of people stopped by the police were the people of color. Besides, the Stop, Question, and Frisk practices foster distrust toward the police in African American and Latino communities. Many young people have the sense of fear caused by the police stop-and-frisks.
In the article by Michael M. Grynbaum and Marjorie Connelly, the New York’s stop, question, and frisk policy has been criticized because it allows the police to detain any person they find suspicious. Although that policy has been put in practice in order to succeed in combating violent crimes, today there is much evidence that it promotes racial profiling. It has been found that “a significant majority of New Yorkers say the Police Department favors whites over blacks, according to a new poll by The New York Times” (Grynbaum & Connelly, 2012, p.1).
Another researcher and journalist, Joseph Goldsteinsept supports the position of the previous authors. He has found that in eastern Brooklyn, many young people try to avoid clasping hands when greeting each other in the street because they are “fearful that their grasp might be mistaken for a drug deal and invite a search by the police” (Goldsteinsept, 2014, p.1).
In the study conducted by David Weisburd and colleagues (2014), special attention is paid to the role of policing practices in the New York crime decline. The researchers highlight the impact of innovations implemented in the New York police strategies. It has been found that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has contributed to the crime drop in the area over the last years. They examined the data on crime and stop, question and frisks policy implementation in order to prove the fact that the stop, question and frisks practices are “concentrated at crime hot spots” (Weisburd et al., 2014, p. 129). The researchers raise concerns regarding possible negative effects of the stop, question and frisks practices.
In the article by David A. Harris (1995), the cases of the stop, question and frisks allow the police to conduct searches and seizures in the streets, making the police officers act without any probable cause. This article shows that the policy requires balancing the interests of the police and private interests.
In the study conducted by Andrew Gelmana and colleagues (2007), there is much evidence that the “police stop persons of racial and ethnic minority groups more often than whites relative to their proportions in the population” (p. 813). Researchers support the ideas of previous authors that persons of African and Hispanic descent face discrimination as they are stopped, questioned and frisked more frequently than white people.
One more article that criticizes the stop, question and frisks policy is the article by Christopher Mathias. A report on NYPD stop, question and frisks policy calls for a comprehensive internal audit. One of the benefits is the “the effectiveness of stop and frisk” in the prevention of carrying guns on the street (Mathias, 2012). However, the author states that there are more weaknesses than strengths of this policy. People who face these practices point out to the fact that “many stops are unconstitutional” (Mathias, 2012, p. 1). This fact means that many stops lack the proper justification. Innocent people suffer from injustices and violation of human rights.
At the same time, there are many proponents of the stop, question and frisks policy. The article written by Joseph Ferrandino (2010) provides a comprehensive analysis of the policy, placing emphasis on the benefits of the stop, question and frisks practices. The analysis of New York Police Department (NYPD) stop and frisk practices has been focused on its equity and effectiveness, including technical efficiency. This research reflects the police efficiency, setting the foundation for future investigation of the existing models as well as the outcomes resulting from frisks.
In the article by Jeffrey Fagan and colleagues (2011), the discussion of the positive and negative consequences of New York City’s modern policing strategies helps to assess the necessity of making an analysis of stop and frisk. The researchers states that stop, question and frisk practice was an “essential feature, perhaps the most important and active ingredient, in the regime of Order Maintenance Policing (OMP) that began in New York City in 1994” (Fagan, 2011, p. 1). In fact, the research is based on highlighting the fairness of the practice as the central motive of the reactions of people from different ethnic backgrounds, including Whites, African-Americans, and Hispanics to experiences with the police. It has been found that all people want the police to act fairly in relation to minorities.
Besides, in the article by Kevin Buckler and George E. Higgins (2014), special attention is paid to the existing perceived injustice and crime policy preference. The aggressiveness of the policy influence racial and ethnic differences in perceptions of residents, but the stop-and-frisk practices are effective at “reducing violent crime and gun offenses” (Buckler & Higgins, 2014, p. 22). The research provides an analysis of the key findings, which contribute to the implementation of the policy in the future. Moreover, the implications for future research are discussed.
Finally, in Fallon’s article, the stop, question and frisk policy is assessed as effective, although it challenges constitutional rights mentioned in the Fourth Amendment. There is a necessity to update the policy in some way, adding the force of law and limiting the ability of the police officers to make adequate policy decisions, without discrimination (Fallon, 2013).
Thus, it is necessary to conclude that the issue regarding the Stop, Question, and Frisk program remains a controversial issue, although the literature reviews provided in this paper point out many positive effects of the policy on society in general and each citizen in particular.
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