Yet another dent in the argument that stop-and-frisk is a necessary tool for police to prevent violent crime: statistics show the number of stops is continuing to decline this year, and the number of murders, shootings, rapes, and robberies is declining as well.
According to DNAinfo’s Murray Weiss, this quarter, the NYPD is on track to make fewer than the 12,495 it made during the last quarter of 2013. As Weiss points out, that’s significantly lower than years past — in the last quarter of 2012, for instance, there were 89,620 stops.
Despite warnings from former police commissioner Ray Kelly that “people will die” if stop-and-frisk is curtailed, violent crime is on the downswing as well, with 18.5 percent fewer murders this year compared to the same period last year and 13.5 percent fewer shootings. Rapes and robberies are down seven percent each.
It’s true that the recent cold spat might have something to do with lower crime — but it could also be that stop-and-frisk simply doesn’t work.
(Photo: @Joshua Kehn)
