Stop and Frisk
This is what I’m talking about –
Stop and frisk was a stupid policy. Randomly stopping people on the streets is ridiculous. It’s a huge waste of time by the police. It would be different if 25% or 50% of people on the street were causing crime. There would then be a high likelihood of finding somebody by randomly stopping people. Instead, crime is committed by a very small group of people. Basically, you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. We’ve got no evidence that randomly stopping people decreases crime. So, what’s the real purpose?
From NYTimes:
The use of police stops has been widely cited by city officials as a linchpin of New York’s success story in seeing murders and major crimes fall to historic lows. The police say the practice has saved the lives of thousands of young black and Hispanic men by removing thousands of guns from the streets.
But the judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, found that the Police Department resorted to a “policy of indirect racial profiling” as it increased the number of stops in minority communities. That has led to officers’ routinely stopping “blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white.” (more…)