The number of stop-and-frisks conducted by NYPD sank 34 percent between the first and second quarters of the year, according to the New York Post.
According to an unnamed city official, 133,934 people were stopped by police between April 1 and June 30, compared to 203,500 from January 1 to March 31.
The Post says that part of the reason for the decrease was Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s pledge to institute additional oversight, training and outreach to prevent racial profiling.
“That’s part of the reason it went down, but not the biggest reason,” the source told the paper.
According to the source, rookie cops assigned to high-crime areas were responsible for most of the stop-and-frisks, and during a crime spike earlier this year, the NYPD put about 1,000 recent police academy graduates on that beat.
The stops dropped quickly by April, when the paper says the rookie complement was back to normal.
Additionally, some cops were wrongly classifying legitimate arrests as stop-and-frisks by filling out “250’s,” the forms used to document each stop.
“If a cop observes someone doing something suspicious and has probable cause to go over and makes an arrest, he doesn’t have to fill out a 250,” the source told the paper.
Prospect Heights Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who is running for congress, , calling it “an abuse of power that perpetuates distrust between the NYPD and the communities it serves.”
Area Councilwoman of the practice.
