Stop And Frisk Policy In New York City - Essay Example

Stop and Frisk has been in practice in policing for many years. However, the policy became the focus of crime control during the Bloomberg era in the New York City area. This policy of stop and frisk was intended to decrease crimes by getting guns and contraband off the streets. Before a police officer proceeds to stop a civilian to frisk them, they must have "reasonable suspicion" meaning that based on their training and experience they should be able to determine if a person is involved in criminal activity. Once the person is stopped, the police may ask several questions to determine their identity and their activities also said as their whereabouts. If the police fears for their safety they move on to the next step, to frisk the person for any weapons or other illegal contraband. The requirement of "reasonable suspicion" arose out of Terry v. Ohio (1968). This case changed policing because, before it, police officers needed "probable cause" to stop someone, meaning that the officer needed sufficient information to believe that the person had committed or was about to commit a crime. Twenty years later, after Terry v. Ohio, the cases of Floyd, et al. v. The city of New York, et al. and Daniels, et al. v. The city of New York, et al. once again questions the constitutionality of the manner in which "Terry" stops are done in New York City. In both cases, the Plaintiffs sue the City of New York alleging that the New York Police Department Has breached the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The analysis of both instances brought out certain similarities on how the police violated the Constitution. The judge in the two cases was the same, Justice Scheindlin. The Plaintiffs in both actions claimed that the police officers targeted a particular race without having probable cause of suspicion enough to suspect some of any possible criminal involvement. Fourth Amendment has been systematically violated as the law enforcement officers have consistently mishandled Americans privacies and aspect of security. The stop and frisk policy, of being stopped if a person looks reasonably suspicion is not the central issue. The main issue is how police officers are applying the policy to civilians. Police officers are only to stop a person if they look reasonably suspicious of being involved in criminal activity not based on their race or physical appearance. The above-mentioned cases Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al. and Daniels, et al. v. City of New York, et al. led the people, including the assigned Judge to look into police departments records with regards to the subject of stop and frisk, which proved that the policy is not being equally applied. Therefore, the actions of police officers showed should be further looked into because what is being done is unconstitutional. It is said that their doings are unconstitutional because based on the statistics police officers are racial profiling ignoring the fact that fact that racial profiling is illegal in this country. Based on statistics, New York Citys population broken into the race is the following: White-36%, Black-33%, Latinos-31%, but yet 79% of Blacks and 69% of Latinos are being stopped. Crime deterrence and "stop and frisk" policy would work effectively if only it were applied indiscriminately. There is little academic work focusing on the issue of stop and frisk as it applies to the security and privacy of Americans. Consequently, there is an urgency to exploit the subject through a rigorous research work that focuses on the public opinion. Law enforcement public relations and the efficacy of the policy were it applied constitutionally with a lot of expertise. LITERATURE REVIEW When Michael Bloomberg took the office of New York mayor in 2012, he introduced the stop and frisk policy with the intention of reducing crime. The policy had the goal of cleaning up New York. This was to be done through stops, frisks, and arrest of people suspected of carrying weapons and other illegal contraband such as drugs by the police. The goal of the policy was to prevent crime before it happens (Schneider, 2014). During this research, one of the most commonly used tools is a literature review. It will explore the concept of "stop and frisk" policy as it was institutionalized in New York. Various academic resources such as journals, books, and many other Internet resources will be used in developing an extensive body of literature that covers the whole subject of ‘stop and frisk" and its legal and public implications. Academic sources such as Rice et al., (2010) on "Race, Ethnicity, and Policing" provide invaluable research sources that evaluate the concept on relations between race and ethnicity, policing. Others include Schneider, (2014) on "Police Power and Race Riots; Suzuki, (2015) on "Constitutional Calculus: The Math of Justice and the Myth of Common Sense" and New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) – "Stop and Frisk Facts", just to mention but a few of the sources that will be useful in this research. The core objective in this review will be to obtain facts and the extent to which "stop and frisk" policy has affected people. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY The proposed research is intended to explore, describe and explain how the policy of "stop and frisk" has affected people of the New York City. In the first place, it will compare the perceptions of NYPD members before and after the political reforms brought by Mayor William DeBlasio. In the research paper, this section will explain the following: 1. Describe the research methodology of the proposed study, which will include an exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. It will involve a survey of randomly selected participants from Criminology majors. 2. Explain the sample selection. For instance, the sample that will be used in the proposed research will be as identified by John Jay College. It involves random sampling of students majoring in criminology. Random sampling has been identified as an appropriate method because it is the best way to get a representative sample. 3. Describe the procedure to be used in designing and constructing the instrument. In the proposed research, a survey questionnaire will be used. It is divided into two major sections. The first section will have 1-19 items that describe the perception of NYPD members in as far as the application of stop and frisk during Bloombergs error is concerned. The second section will have 20-39 items highlighting the demographic information of research participants. It neighborhood of residence, race, and ethnicity, gender, age, occupation, parents occupation, suffrage and family income. 4. Describe the procedure to be used for data collection. For example, Before beginning the actual survey, both cover letters and questionnaires will be sent to participants through e-mail. They will be expected to respond promptly to the questionnaires and return them. 5. Provide an explanation of the statistical procedure that will be used to analyze the data. Completeness and correctness will be the parameters of analysis as well as frequency distributions. Data will be coded and keyed into SPSS, and the analysis tables will also be used. Work cited Davis, Kelvin R. Driving While Black: Coverup. Cincinnati: Interstate International Pub. of Cincinnati, 2001. Print. Rice, Stephen K, and Michael D. White. Race, Ethnicity, and Policing: New and Essential Readings. New York: New York University Press, 2010. Print. Muffler, Steven J. Racial Profiling: Issues, Data, and Analyses. New York: Nova Science Erzen, Tanya, and Andrea McArdle. Zero Tolerance: Quality of Life and the New Police Brutality in New York City. New York, NY [u.a.: New York University Press, 2001. Print. Reisig, Michael D, and Robert J. Kane. The Oxford Handbook of Police and Policing. , 2014. Print. Schneider, Cathy L. Police Power and Race Riots: Urban Unrest in Paris and New York. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. Print. Suzuki, Jeff. Constitutional Calculus: The Math of Justice and the Myth of Common Sense. , 2015. Print. Stop and Frisk Facts | New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) - American Civil Liberties Union of New York State. (n.d.). Read More