NEW YORK — The NYPD didn't answer lawmakers' questions about its controversial stop-and-frisk policy Thursday, but people who get patted down are getting clarification - on a card.
The department has begun handing out informational cards to people police stop and frisk, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday. The cards, in seven languages, list general reasons why police might deem the encounters necessary.
NYPD Hands Out Cards People Stopped and Frisked
NEW YORK — The NYPD didn’t answer lawmakers’ questions about its controversial stop-and-frisk policy Thursday, but people who get patted down are getting clarification – on a card.
The department has begun handing out informational cards to people police stop and frisk, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday. The cards, in seven languages, list general reasons why police might deem the encounters necessary.
A Daily News analysis this year showed that the overwhelming majority of people stopped and frisked are quickly let go without even a summons. Kelly said cards can help cops save time while clearing up confusion.
“People are losing time, and we’re taking time away from them,” Kelly told reporters at Police Headquarters. “We’re hoping to give people a little more information about what the procedure is and why it’s being done.”
So far the program, recommended by the nonprofit Rand Corp., is in effect in sections of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
It’s unclear whether the card policy will soothe anger in some minority communities, where people have long complained that the stop-and-frisk procedure amounts to harassment. The Center for Constitutional Rights, working on behalf of four minority pedestrians, found that 80% of those stopped were black or Hispanic.
“I think that’s ridiculous,” said Davonne Henry, 16, a 10th-grader who lives in Harlem. “It’s not really changing nothing. Like we want the card?”
The News found that only 6% of the 744,087 individuals stopped and questioned in a recent 18-month period were arrested. And of the 1.6 million stops by cops from 2005 through June of last year, only 2.6% uncovered a weapon or other illegal items.
The issue was on the minds Thursday of a City Council panel, where NYPD brass were brought in to answer questions on the department’s stop-and-frisk practices.
Assistant Commissioner Susan Petito declined to answer questions, reading a letter from Kelly that cited a related lawsuit.
Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens), chairman of the Public Safety Committee that held the hearing, was not pleased at the silent treatment.
“It reinforces the view held by some that the Police Department isn’t being accountable to the concerns of the community,” Vallone said.
