NYC police stop-and-frisk numbers down sharply

NYC police stop-and-frisk numbers down sharply

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of street stops under the police department’s heavily criticized stop-and-frisk tactic has plummeted 80 percent in recent months compared with the same time last year, and officers are recovering fewer weapons, according to police department data obtained Monday.

There were slightly more than 21,000 stops for July, August and September. There were 106,000 stops during the same months last year.

Officers recovered 99 firearms, down from 198 last year, and 463 knives, down from 1,016, according to the quarterly data provided to the City Council.

Police chief spokesman John McCarthy said there’s no “predetermined or correct number of stops,” just as there isn’t with arrests.

“Ultimately, police officers make their decisions based on real-time observations from the field — and those stops are based on reasonable suspicion,” he said.

The decline comes around a federal judge’s August ruling that the police department’s policy of stopping and questioning people based on reasonable suspicions a crime is about to occur or has occurred unfairly targeted minorities.

The judge ordered major reforms to the stop-and-frisk program after four men who argued they were unfairly targeted sued the city. Her ruling is on hold pending a city appeal.