New York's stop-and-frisk process is still a hot-button issue.
Early this week, the Village Voice reported that NYPD officers have been giving out cards to people they have detained. In New York, if an officer has reasonable suspicion, he can stop that person, ask him questions, and pat him down. All of this is legal; however, due to the racist allegations that are being made against the NYPD, officers have been including a card that lists the "common reasons police stop individuals."
During the last year, the Gothamist reports that 531,159 New Yorkers were stopped and frisked. While the race of each person has not yet been analyzed, the 2008 findings show that "51 percent of people stopped by police were black, 32 percent were Latino, and 11 percent were white. And 88 percent were totally innocent."
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) goes on to say that in 2007, the NYPD began taking all of the stop-and-frisk worksheets and saving them in a database. During an encounter, an officer is required to write down things such as the person's name, why he was stopped, and the time. The Executive Director of the NYCLU, Donna Lieberman stated that, "the NYPD's collection and retention of this information represents a violation of the privacy rights of New Yorkers, may be illegal, and - given that the individuals stopped are disproportionately black or Hispanic - raises concerns about racial profiling. People who have done nothing wrong should not be in a police database."
In the New York Times, Police Commissioner Kelly defended the database by saying, "Information contained in the stop, question and frisk database remains there indefinitely, for use in future investigations." Mr. Kelly's spokesman gave the example of a criminal trial. He explained that if a suspect, under the representation of a New York criminal defense attorney, were to testify that he was at a certain place, the database may be used to support or disprove his statement.
MSNBC reports that there are New York nonprofits that offer classes on "how to behave when stopped," which include the New York City Mission Society and the Door.
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