NYPD to Stop and Frisk Record Number This Year

The NYPD wants to "Stop and Frisk" a record number of people this year--more than 580,000.

"They're back to doing what they've been doing, which is stopping and frisking as many people as they can," says Chris Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

NYPD officers in 2006 stopped more than 508,000 people on the street and questioned them.
Records indicate that 55 percent of the more than 508,000 people stopped and searched that year were black, and nearly 30 percent were Hispanic. Be on your P's and Q's!

Stop and Frisk: (n.) a law enforcement officer's search for a weapon confined to a suspect's outer clothing when either a bulge in the clothing or the outline of the weapon is visible. The search is commonly called a "pat down," and any further search requires either a search warrant or "probable cause" to believe the suspect will commit or has committed a crime (including carrying a concealed weapon, which itself is a crime). The limited right to "stop and frisk" is intended to halt the practice of random searches of people in hopes of finding evidence of criminal activity or merely for purposes of intimidation, particularly of minorities. (See: search, search and seizure, probable cause, search warrant)