Recently, to counter a report conducted by the Rand Corporation for the NYPD on its stop, question, and frisk practices, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court. The suit challenges the NYPD’s refusal to release an electronic database detailing hundreds of thousands of police stops, most of which were of Black and Hispanic citizens.
According to the NYCLU, there is no way the Rand Corporation, or any other independent agency, can complete a thorough and meaningful analysis without access to the electronic database.
“This report does nothing to change the number of law-abiding New Yorkers who were stopped or frisked by the police last year,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU. “No matter how much the statistics are massaged, the fact still remains that in 2006 more than half a million New Yorkers were stopped and frisked by police, about 90 percent of those people were engaged in no unlawful activity, and 86 percent of those people were Black or Latino.”
The 80-page report, the NYCLU contends, appears to distort the data, and often attempts to justify negative outcomes based on hypothesis and conjecture.
“It’s clear by their own language that the report’s authors are trying to explain away the racial disparities that arise over and over again,” Lieberman said. “This has all the trappings of a whitewash.”
The National Latino Officers Association of America (NLOAA) agreed with the NYCLU, charging that the “study is comprised of endless excuses and statistical justifications, drawing conclusions that have no basis in reality. If left unchallenged, it is the justification for racial profiling, abuse, and discrimination.”
Anthony Miranda, executive chairman of NLOAA, appearing on Gary Byrd’s show on WLIB with Marq Claxton of 100 Black Men In Law Enforcement Who Care, said that too many variables were not included in the study, thereby rendering it faulty. “In other words, you get what you pay for,” he said, with Claxton joining in accord.
While the NYPD reportedly has not responded to the NYCLU, it did take exception to Miranda’s conclusions. “Not surprisingly, this statement is riddled with inaccuracies and exposes Miranda’s deep ignorance of the statistical process employed by Rand, a nationally respected nonprofit [organization], which subjected its research to rigorous peer review,'' said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn said the report was scandalous. “The Black community continues to bear the brunt of police stops, Blacks continue to be singled out for stops that don’t ever result in an arrest and the police department continues its efforts to justify these practices. Now more than ever, an independent review of the NYPD’s stop-and- frisk procedures is necessary.”
In 2006, according to the report, the NYPD completed stop, question and frisk maneuvers on 508,540 individuals. Of that number, 458,104 people – about 90 percent of all people stopped – were engaged in no unlawful act whatsoever, as they were neither given a summons nor arrested. Nearly 86 percent of all persons stopped were Black or Hispanic.
Statistics made available earlier this month appear to point to a similar trend in 2007. For the seven quarters data is available – between January 1, 2006 and September 30, 2007 – police officers reported 867,617 stops. Though Blacks represent far less of the New York City population than do whites, police stopped 453,042 Blacks as compared to only 94,530 whites during the period. In addition, only 83,452 whites were stopped without being arrested, while police stopped 402,943 Blacks without making any arrests.
