Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton express every confidence that they’ll live happily ever after with court-ordered monitoring of the NYPD’s stop, question and frisk policy. Good luck with that.
It’s only a matter of time before de Blasio and Bratton crash into the anti-stop absolutism of the activists whose federal suit declared the program unconstitutional. For evidence, consider a report that the American Civil Liberties Union has issued on stop, question and frisk in Newark.
The ACLU played the numbers game that won the day in court for the New York activists: Count the number of stops and analyze the races of the people who were stopped. When the proportion who are blacks is larger than the proportion of blacks in the general population, cry unfairness.
Next, count the number of stops that produced an arrest or a summons. When the percentage — or the “hit rate” — proves small because cops have the power to question anyone on just a reasonable suspicion of criminality, cry more unfairness.
The NYPD issued summonses or made arrests after 10% of its stops. To the activists, the number proved wrongdoing because, they said, 90% of the people stopped were innocent.
We’ve asked them: What would be the right number of stops? What would be the right ratio of stops to arrests? We don’t know. They never answer because there is almost no level of police action above zero that would satisfy their concerns.
Now, the ACLU has offered some clarification. At 25%, Newark’s hit rate is more than double New York’s, and that is still not good enough.
“Only one out of four individuals stopped by the Newark Police Department is arrested or issued a summons,” the ACLU wrote, while “thousands of people were stopped, questioned by police, and many undoubtedly were also frisked, even they were completely innocent.”
When Bratton was Los Angeles police chief, the LAPD had a hit rate that, at 30%, was only a smidgen higher than Newark’s. He and de Blasio stand warned: No matter how they “fix” stop-and-frisk, it won’t be good enough. That monitor will be on their case for good.
