NYPD sees 34 pct drop in 'stop and frisk' cases

Washington, Aug 4 (ANI): Incidents of people being stopped and frisked by police in New York have dropped significantly, by over 34 percent, officials have said.

NYPD statistics showed that 133,934 people were stopped by police between April 1 and June 30, 34 percent fewer than the 203,500 people stopped from January 1 to March 31.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Friday attributed the marked decrease to improvements in training and reporting of the controversial tactic, The New York Daily News reports.

But most of the decline occurred because fewer rookie cops are patrolling impact zones, crime-prone areas where the NYPD deploys more officers on the ground, the report said.

"As that double-up situation was reduced, that number naturally went down. I think the training has improved," the paper quoted Kelly, as saying.

"The quality of reports and certainly the reduction of officers in impact (zones) has contributed to a decline," he added.

According to the paper, Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the numbers were "encouraging," but they fail to show how many innocent people were stopped.

"If past is prologue, we can expect that the NYPD officers subjected at least 1,000 innocent New Yorkers a day to humiliating and unjustified street stops. That's nothing to brag about," Lieberman said. (ANI)