Police stops skyrocket in New York City

The so-called “stop-and-frisk” data show that the NYPD forcibly detained and searched more than 508,540 people in 2006. This marks a more than 500 percent increase from the figure of 97,296 reported in 2002. Only 4 percent of those stopped were arrested.

Since 2001, the NYPD, the nation’s largest police force with more than 37,000 officers, has been mandated by city law to release these figures, but has not done so since 2002. An NYPD spokesman blamed this lapse on antiquated technology used in the compiling process.

The figure includes only stops for which the police filled out the appropriate paperwork, a form called a UF-250. It does not include searches of bags and containers in the New York subway systems, which are considered voluntary since a person may decline a search and opt not to ride the subway.

Another telling indicator of the rise of police activity has been the number of complaints about police abuse to the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). Complaints filed alleging police misconduct in stops and searches rose from 925 in 2002 to 2,556 in 2006.

Over the past year, the total number of allegations of police abuse of all sorts submitted to the CCRB rose 21.5 percent from 20,624 in 2005 to 25,961 in 2006.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/nypd-f13.shtml