As it turns out, the NYPD’s controversial practice of Stop-and-Frisk failed to pull guns off the street, according to a new report.
STORY: Stop & Frisk The Police! NYPD Cop Busted For Selling Stolen Guns
According to DNAinfo.com:
The number of guns taken off the street by the NYPD has dropped during the Bloomberg era despite a 600 percent increase in stop-and-frisks, DNAinfo.com New York has found.
During the past two years alone, the number of firearms seized by police has fallen 13.5 percent from 3,908 in 2009 with 510,742 frisks, to 3,443 last year, when the NYPD stopped and frisked a record-busting 685,724 New Yorkers.
And last week the NYPD reported that during the first half of this year, firearm seizures continues to fall to 1,613, compared to 1,705 during the first six months of last year. The downturn came as the NYPD conducted 337,434 stops-and-frisks — a figure that keeps the NYPD on pace to match last year’s record-busting total.
By comparison, during Bloomberg’s first year in office in 2002, the NYPD recovered 4,069 guns — but the police stop-and-frisked only 96,000 people that year, according to NYPD data.
So with the increase of Stop-and-Frisks, more guns were found, hence more guns are on the streets.
A retired top police official, who was in charge of NYPD operations and strategies, said:
“There are primarily only two reasons you do a stop-and-frisk…You’re either trying to find a weapon or arrest someone…That’s fundamentally it. That’s the reason for stopping someone.”
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defend the practice and insist that it is not racially motivated and has saved lives.
It may save lives, but at the cost of harassing people of color.
SOURCE: DNAinfo.com.
Photo Credit for the picture above courtesy of DNAinfo/Jill Colvin
