The recent legal blows to the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactics may have department brass fearful for the policy’s future, as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly gave a fire-and-brimstone sermon on the dangers of ending the practice at a press conference yesterday. “The things that we’re doing here are working and I would hate to see them change significantly,” Kelly said. “People will die as a result.”
Kelly is so committed to stop-and-frisk, it seems, that he believes support for the program should be a “litmus test” for anyone seeking to become Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successor this year. In a way, he’s right: any candidate who hopes to keep stop-and-frisk going at Kelly and Bloomberg’s record-high pace should New Yorkers dubious.
UPDATE: We missed it this morning, but at the same press conference, Ray Kelly mentioned that the NYPD is “looking into” using drones for surveillance, just as ESSAM predicted.
(Photo: Azi Paybarah/Flickr)
