Letter: Stop-and-Frisk, Cause-and-Effect (NY Daily News)

To the Editor:

While the Daily News and others continue to mislead the public, the NYPD’s own data show that stopping and frisking people without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity doesn’t get guns off the streets (“Scared stiff on shootings,” editorial, July 14).

The height of the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk program in 2011, with nearly 700,000 stops, saw one of the city’s highest levels of shootings during his administration. In Bloomberg’s last year, when the number of stops was down to closer to the current level, the city had its lowest level of shootings during his tenure and in recent history. The data tell the story. Those who defended the Bloomberg administration’s out-of-control stop-and-frisk policy should stop with the misinformation and fear-mongering.

Candis Tolliver
Assistant Advocacy Director for Organizing
New York Civil Liberties Union