As part of the defense of the NYPD's use of stop-and-frisk, City attorneys played an NYPD training video in court last week. The nine-minute video instructs officers to use "sharp observation skills" to locate concealed weapons on suspects. "Don't be shy about going into the crotch area," the video's narrator says.
Like the City's defense of the tactic in the landmark federal trial to determine its constitutionality, the video stresses that officers can spot and confiscate illegal weapons during a stop if they are observant, and provides two real examples of officers who recovered guns during stops in Bed-Stuy. Stop-and-frisks, the NYPD and City attorneys argue, are vital to keeping illegal guns off of the street.
But data does not support the tactic's effectiveness in recovering weapons: as the number of stops increased by more than 300% from 2003 to 2011, only 176 additional guns were recovered. Last year, a gun was found in 0.1% of stops. Even Mayor Bloomberg has acknowledged that the stops don't prevent shootings.
Deputy Chief James Shea, who heads up operations at the Police Academy, is testifying at the trial as a witness for the City. "A lot of training, ongoing training program up at our Rodman's Neck range. We use attorneys, we use that video," Commissioner Ray Kelly told NY1. "So we are very much concerned about the issue but I believe we are on top of it. And I believe that training video if you saw it, is very well done."
What puzzled us after witnessing the live stop-and-frisk drills is how little they resembled reality: an overwhelming majority of the stops occur when officers observe suspicious behavior ("furtive movements" or a "suspicious bulge"). But the two scenarios presented to the media last June were radio calls. A third was a domestic disturbance.
"They are reflective of actual jobs," Shea told us of the live scenarios, adding that radio runs are "easier for me to control for training purposes."
Also not part of the NYPD's stop-and-frisk training: Commissioner Kelly's 2011 directive to officers to stop tricking people into bringing small amounts of marijuana into public view, thus turning violations into time-consuming, overtime-friendly misdemeanors.
However, in 2012, both marijuana arrests and stops declined, along with the City's murder rate and overall crime rate (minus thefts of Apple products).
Here's one of the stops we recorded from the training demonstration last year.
NYPD Stop & Frisk Demo 1 from Gothamist on Vimeo.
