Stop and frisk’s racial disparities persist in Queens

Though the number of stop and frisks decreased in 2020, the racial disparities that the program is known for continued.  File AP photo by Seth Wenig

By Jacob Kaye

While the number of stop, question and frisk interactions by the NYPD saw a dramatic decline last year, the racial disparities that define the controversial policing tactic were as stark as ever in 2020, recently released NYPD data shows. 

Of the 9,544 people stopped and frisked by the NYPD last year, 91 percent were New Yorkers of color, according to NYPD data. Around 56 percent of those stops were of Black New Yorkers, who account for around 24 percent of the city’s population. 

In Queens, where there were around 1,700 stops made by the NYPD in 2020, nearly 90 percent were made on Queens residents of color. Black Queens residents accounted for nearly 46 percent of the people stopped by the NYPD despite making up only 20 percent of the borough’s population. 

Stop and frisk was used fewer times by the NYPD in 2020, a year in which many New Yorkers were mostly confined to their homes. In 2019, around 13,450 stops were made – up from around 11,000 the year before.  

“This latest data from the NYPD shows that not enough has changed with the way the NYPD interacts with New Yorkers of color since the Mayor claims to have ended stop-and-frisk,” said Molly Griffard, a legal fellow with the Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project. “The numbers show clearly that the NYPD continues to use stop-and-frisk, that it is still being carried out in a racially discriminatory manner, and that it remains highly ineffective at furthering public safety.”

The NYPD defended its use of the program in a statement to the Eagle Thursday, touting the decrease in stops and the increase in gun arrests made – the main reason the program exists in the first place. 

“The NYPD has made a record number of gun arrests this year, with gun arrests through May rising to 1,917 compared with 1,497 in the same period a year ago, a more than 28-percent increase,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “With its innovative enforcement paradigms, the NYPD will continue using its intelligence-driven approach to focus on areas experiencing disproportionate violence and ensure the kind of constitutional, biased-free policing that is foundational to building community trust and maintaining public safety.”

Around 3 percent of the stops made in Queens in 2020 resulted in NYPD officers finding a gun on the person they stopped, questioned and frisked. In 2011, the height of stop and frisk in New York City, around 2 percent of people stopped were found to have illegal items on them. 

The NYPD precincts with the highest number of stops were precincts located in areas with high numbers of Black and brown residents. The 103rd Precinct, which accounted for the highest number of stop and frisks in Queens last year, covers the neighborhoods of Jamaica, Hollis Park Gardens, Hollis and Lakewood. 

“This is the definition of insanity,” City Councilmember I. Daneek Miller told the Eagle in a statement. “We have grappled with quality of life issues in our Downtown Jamaica business district for the past five years and traditional policing including stop and frisk has not worked.”

“The 103rd precinct remains one of five precincts in New York City under federal monitorship due to its past, and it’s time for us to explore other methods of policing, including community-based solutions such as crisis management and cure violence,” he added. “Public safety and treating residents with dignity and respect aren't mutually exclusive.”