stop and frisk

NYPD: Sure, Stop-and-Frisks Are Way Up, But Murders Are Down

New York Police Department officers walk along a street in Lower Manhattan March 18, 2012 in New York.
Photo: Stan Honda /AFP/Getty Images

Since January, New Yorkers have been stopped 203,500 times as part of the NYPD’s well-worn stop-and-frisk program. This revelation comes just days after the NYCLU revealed a detailed study that found a whopping 87 percent of all stops last year were targeted at blacks and Latinos. City officials quickly denounced the department’s, shall we say, zeal, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn:

We cannot continue to stop, question and frisk nearly 700,000 New Yorkers in this way without doing harm to the relationship between police officers and the people they are protecting, particularly in communities of color.

But as the NYPD sees it, and as they made clear to reporters yesterday, what else could be behind the all-time low in homicides?

NYPD: Stop-and-Frisks Way Up, But Murders Down