The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) revealed Tuesday evening that the New York Police Department (NYPD) stopped and interrogated more people under Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) in 2011 than ever before, with minorities being a regular target.
The NYPD detained 684,330 people under a stop-and-frisk procedure, a 600 percent increase from Bloomberg’s first year in office in 2002. At least nine out of 10 people stopped were innocent, with 87 percent of them either black or Latino.
“It is not a crime to walk down the street in New York City," NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. "Yet every day innocent black and brown New Yorkers are turned into suspects for doing just that. It is a stunning abuse of power that undermines trust between police and the community.”
Darius Charney, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, expressed his outrage over the statistics.
"These numbers make clear that illegal stops-and-frisks have become an epidemic in New York City," he said. "And the only antidote is meaningful, independent oversight of the Department.”
During Bloomberg's tenure as mayor, the NYPD has conducted stop-and-frisk searches on 4.3 million people. Of those stopped, 88 percent -- or 3.8 million -- were not arrested or issued summons.
