The Legal Aid Society condemned the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for conducting, according to data released by the NYPD itself, 2,451 more stop-and-frisk procedures in 2019 than it conducted in 2018 – an increase of 22 percent. A staggering 90 percent of those stops involved New Yorkers of color. Additionally, 65 percent resulted in neither an arrest nor the issuance of a summons.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who campaigned on a promise to end stop-and-frisk, has repeatedly claimed that the practice is no more. However, the City’s own data confirms just the opposite.
NYPD Stop-And-Frisk Total Procedures By Year
| Year | Count |
| 2019 | 13,459 |
| 2018 | 11,008 |
| 2017 | 11,629 |
| 2016 | 12,404 |
| 2015 | 22,563 |
| 2014 | 45,787 |
| 2013 | 191,851 |
NYPD Stop-And-Frisk Procedures By Borough
| Bronx | Brooklyn | Manhattan | Queens | Staten Island | Citywide | |
| 2018 | 2,331 | 3,632 | 2,857 | 1,848 | 340 | 11,008 |
| 2019 | 2,464 | 4,311 | 3,724 | 2,446 | 514 | 13,459 |
| YoY Increase | 5.71% | 18.69% | 30.35% | 32.36% | 51.18% | 22.27% |
“This data confirms what we hear from our clients on a daily basis – despite court rulings that the City’s practices were unlawful, aggressive stop-and-frisk has made a comeback in New York City,” said Corey Stoughton, Attorney-in-Charge of the Special Litigation Unit with the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society. “This is an alarming trend at the beginning of Commissioner Dermot Shea’s tenure but not surprising as he is a long-time champion of discredited broken windows policing. What it really represents is a broken promise to New Yorkers who stood up years ago to end ineffective, unfair and unconstitutional police practices.”
Many of The Legal Aid Society’s criminal defense clients are members of the class in the federal class action lawsuit Floyd v. City of New York filed against the City of New York by the Center for Constitutional Rights to challenge the NYPD’s practices of racial profiling and unconstitutional stop and frisks of New York City residents. The Legal Aid Society and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund challenged the NYPD’s racially discriminatory policing practices in the case Davis v. City of New York, which is now part of the court monitoring process that was ordered as a result of Floyd.
About The Legal Aid Society
The Legal Aid Society exists for one simple yet powerful reason: to ensure that New Yorkers are not denied their right to equal justice because of poverty. For over 140 years, we have protected, defended, and advocated for those who have struggled in silence for far too long. Every day, in every borough, The Legal Aid Society changes the lives of our clients and helps improve our communities.
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