I wonder if the NYCLU’s Stop and Frisk app is even necessary. New Yorkers already use their smartphones to record video and send it in to organizations or post it on YouTube. This would just make it slightly more convenient. But the feature which tells you where stops are taking place could be cause for concern – although it may be helpful to the average New Yorker who may not want to be hassled to know which route to avoid, it can also tip off those that are carrying weapons. The Stop, Question and Frisk policy itself needs to really be looked at and today’s effort to involve the federal government may be the first step. Police need to be able to do their jobs and keep the streets safe, but it shouldn’t be at the cost of people’s rights.

About a dozen City and State lawmakers are in Washington today, calling on the Justice Department to investigate the NYPD’s Stop, Question and Frisk policy. They are asking the federal government to intervene in lawsuits challenging the program, which they say overwhelmingly targets minorities. Civil rights activists have found that of the 685,000 stopped on City streets, 87 percent were black or Latino; about half were frisked.

The trip to our nation’s capitol comes a day after the New York Civil Liberties Union unveiled a smartphone app allowing witnesses of stop-and-frisks to record video, and report the incidents to the NYCLU. It also alerts users to police stops in their area. The NYCLU said it’s trying to gather information about specific incidents so it can bring them to the attention of the NYPD. But a police spokesman said the app raises concerns about privacy, and criminals may use it to find out where police are making stops.

Do you think the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics warrant a federal investigation? Would you like to see the Justice Department intervene? What’s your reaction to the NYCLU’s “Stop and Frisk Watch” app? Is it an invasion of privacy?

Reply with your thoughts using the link above.

I've always believed that Donna Lieberman and the NYCLU were essentially a criminals' lobby, and this proves it and more -- now they're trying to undermine the law enforcement efforts of the New York Police Department.

As to the calls for intervention by Washington, that's the cry of the truly desperate -- they're trying to stack the deck so the city "settles" before going to trial, knowing that an actual ruling in court in their favor is unlikely. The city should call their bluff and go to trial.

Bruce
Upper West Side

I have no idea where the hell all of this is going. How many things going on that we don’t like and we feel discriminated against.

Everyone is to divided in this city and there is just to much tension as a result of it.
I think people just hear what they want to hear which is whatever is in their favor.

How many of us have been disgruntled only by this Mayor and now we have The New York Civil Liberties Union on our case. They the NYCLU need to start using some common sense.

WHO WILL BE THE ONE TO TAKE CARE OF THIS PROBLEM IN WASHINGTON? ERIC HOLDER.

YOU KNOW THERE IS AN OLD SAYING AND THAT IS FIRE EVERYBODY AND START ALL OVER AGAIN.

ALL OF THESE SO CALLED POLITICIANS JUST KEEP CHANGING LAWS AND THEN WE ARE ALL STUCK WITH THEM. MANY NEW LAWS HAVE JUST GONE ABOVE THE OLD LAWS THAT WE HAD TO ABIDE BY.

DON’T FORGET THE NEW TREND IS EVERY NEW MAN MADE LAW IS DECIDED BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.

TALK ABOUT A HOLY MESS, WELL THIS IS IT.

PLEASE DO NOT HAVE THIS CIVIL LIBERTIES WOMAN ON HER SOAP BOX AGAIN TONIGHT.

Maxxiee
Morris Park

I am sure that the police are probably out of control. But unfortunately the communities where most of the stop and frisk happens are also the communities where most crimes happen. Perhaps both sides need to take some responsibility. It is time for everyone to take an honest look at the problem.

Allen
East Village

Stopping and frisking people without a warrant is a violation of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.

“The right of the people to be secure in their possessions, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

The NYPD searches and seizures are warrantless searches specifically prohibited by the Constitution.

Joe
Port Richmond

Lately there's been a few shootings in the vicinity of 129th. street in Harlem. It seems in response the police have put up barricades between 7th & 5th ave. I was wondering why there hasn't been any open communication between residents & precinct commanders? They ask people entering the block to show I.d. displaying the block's address, but not everybody has I.d. with the block's address. Now someone has to call for someone that has i.d. with a local address to escort them past the police barricades.

S. W.

What they need to do is to find ways to eliminate the racial profiling, not eliminate the Stop-And-Frisk. It is a good feeling to know that if you have to walk home from work in the night, you are less likely to be shot by some fool, because they are afraid to carry a gun, because they are afraid the Police may stop and frisk them.

Paulette

Well it looks like big brother is watching. When we handcuff our law enforcement officers the crinmals will run amok.

Freddy
Glen Oaks Village

Stop the illegal stop and search in African American and his panic communities. I don't see stop and search in flushing, corona and Jackson heights. Do these communities get special treatment. they have prostitution and drugs in these communities. And most of them are illegals executing the crime. send in the vice units and drug unit and start enforcing the law. Stop and search is illegal without probable cause.

Joy
Flushing

Thank you NYPD for helping protect those living in crime- ridden neighborhoods This proactive program has cut crime and saved countless lives. What's the alternative?

Steve
Forest Hills

Is that the best that the NYPD can come up with in terms of the legality and plausibility of Stop & Frisk ?

As far as an explanation for the Stop and Frisk this evening, by Deputy Paul Browne, sounded as if he was unable to remember his lines. The basis of his argument for continued Stop and Frisk was that somehow it prevented 6,000 homicides last year, where is that data coming from?

The drugs that ravaged many low income communities back in the 80's and 90's are gone. The overt drug user's, indictive of that era, are no longer in that life, barring a few die hards. That brought the crime rate down astronomically, along with the dinkin's administration concentration on police aggressiveness in combating the drug trade nyc.

Bloomberg is crediting himself with something he had no influence or control over.

K
Harlem

I am a hispanic male and I don't see anything wrong with the NYPD's Stop and Frisk policy. If blacks and hispanics were not committing the majority of crime, they would not be getting stopped and frisked the majority of the time. Everyone is screaming racial profiling etc why don't we start screaming at the people committing the crimes to stop doing it.

José
Corona

This isn't a helpful practice because u alienate black and Latinos with this negative attention meanwhile you are giving other races the space to commit other crimes. Caucasian and other races commit more outrageous crimes than your average minority person I.e. marijuana possession versus heroine or cocaine possession

Dave
Far Rockaway

Am I the only one that finds it extremely convenient, that the deputy commissioner just "happens" to be at the scene of a homicide, on the day that he just "happens" to have the first word on the Call, and just "happens" to have to make the call from the scene, about a topic that is bolstered by said scene? Since WHEN does the deputy commissioner investigate homicide scenes of black men in the hood???

Chaun

Since I was a teen growing up between staten island and brooklyn the cops have always gotten away with murder under the stop & frisk BS. It is dangerous for the people but more importantly it is deadly to our children. At 15 yrs old I was attacked by 7 cops during a stop & frisk because I didnt belong in the public housing apts according to them but later that night they found I had been living there for my whole childhood. I personally have been stopped dozens of times & at one stop & frisk encounter had 5 male cops hold me while 3 other male cope frisked my girlfriend who was a minor & we were told we could not call our parents . These cops MUST be stopped they are overflowing with power.

Estefano: Should ride on the subway around 4:00PM when those "innocent" are wilding in the subways intimidating riders and generally creating a nuisance. Maybe he would like Harlem better if the Police were to leave and allow the criminals to take the streets back 60's to 70's style.

I would be thrilled if the feds conducted an investigation. Stop and frisk is racial profiling, pure and simple. The figures show stop and frisk doesn’t result in any significant amount of arrests. But it does, as one of your callers said, stigmatize and humiliate young black men and entire communities. I believe that constantly being stopped and frisked probably causes low self esteem and can actually increase crime in the long run because of this. I have observed cops harassing young black men for no reason, baiting them, hoping to push them into doing something so that they could be arrested.
Shame on NYC.

Meryl
Manhattan

I sent an email before but i felt I should elaborate on myself quickly, I have been the victim of dozens of stop and frisks & many got out of hand but the big kicker is I am white although I pass off for latino & at times middle eastern , the whole operation of stop and frisk is not only based on a persons ethnicity it is really just a pick and go thing. They see you they decide they want you then they get you.

Estefano is blessed!!! Maybe he should come to my neighborhood Flushing, Queens were the police are MIA and theres illegal prostitution and gambling happening behind the walls of most of these apartments.

L

The police, who support these stop and frisks policies, are the same police who try and justify their actions .when by the same criteria they chose to generalize victims of stop and frisks they easily escalate it into a shooting of an unarmed individual.

Wonder how a cop would feel if he was getting stopped and frisked

Don
Astoria

Let’s stop kidding ourselves. The police need stop and frisk powers so they can protect the drug dealers who are paying them off. It’s time for a new Knapp Commission.

Michael
Greenpoint

i want to ask anyone who supports this law...are you willing to let the government search you every time you leave your house?

Personally, I believe the NYPD should have the right to "stop, question, and "frisk" only when there is reasonable to do so. Most important is for civilians to learn and know their rights when stopped!

Liz
Rosedale

I total disagree with the stop and frisk, reason the people's are total forgetting about the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution Rights. Which protects the citizen rights to illegal search and seizure. Which the NYPD is in total violation of the citizens rights of the five boro's.

There is a difference between stop-and-frisk and racial profiling. Racial profiling is unconstitutional, dangerous, and a net loss in reducing crime. Stop-and-frisk is constitutional where cops see suspicious activity that does not quite rise to 'probable cause'; cops can stop, ask for ID, and pat down quickly for weapons. Just being black or Latino is not 'suspicious activity.' A cop who can't tell a black honors student from a black drug dealer is a dumb, lazy, lousy cop. Seriously, I think Mayor Bloomberg has a brain tumor. This is the same guy who predicted the Times Square Bomber was probably in the Tea Party, not a Islamic Jihadist as it turned out to be. The same guy who stood on his head defending Muslims during the Ground Zero Mosque controversy -- yet he supports racial profiling in mosques in New Jersey. In a rabid fit, he slanders Philadelphia as the 'Murder Capital of The World' to justify racial profiling. Now he wants to ban Pepsi Cola. Bloomberg is Caligula. Whenever NY1 runs a story on stop-and-frisk, you show video clips of police doing full, empty-the-pockets searches. Those videos are misleading. Reasonable suspicion does not justify a full search, only a quick pat down to make sure the person doesn't have a weapon in the pocket. If police are emptying pockets on stop-and-frisk, that is illegal. The quick weapons pat is a good idea to avoid more horrors like the police killing of Amidou Diallo.

Canaan
Manhattan

Why doesn't anyone want to talk about the real problem. Get more non-white cops on the police force and it won't be such a racially divided issue. White cops in non-white neighborhoods is just part of a scam, created by white city officials, to justify an enormous payroll to provide careers and post career pension benefits for Long Island, non-residents who are afraid of losing one of the last white strongholds, like the fire and sanitation departments. If I didn't know better, I would think only Jews, Itallians and the Irish own and run all of New York city, just from watching TV. Too many of them are relatives and freinds and love being glory seekers. Few of them really care about what happens to Blacks, Latinos and Asians, as long as they can get paid.
But, as usual, nobody wants to really talk about race. New York has always been the most segregated/integrated city in the world. Forced to work and educate together, but God forbid you stray into a different ethnic area, especially a non-white into a white area. New York, The Big diversity Lie! Get white cops out of non-white neighborhoods! the real crime is in their neighborhoods anyway. It's just better concealed. Whites have always covered for each other and will continue to do so. That's really why it's called, "white collar crime".