POSC240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Proactive Policing, Overcoat, New York City Police Department
30 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
POSC Extra Credit: Race and Suspicion
•Jeffrey Fagan- professor of law at Colombia University
•rarely find guns or make arrests to people they stop- over 90% of ppl they stop have done
nothing wrong
•hit rates: if hit rates are the same there is no bias bc police are acing on measure of efficiency
•in criminology, look at who asked for a search
•black ppl and hispanic ppl of ny stopped 2-3 times as much as a white person in relation to
the neighborhood (1999)
•translated into court settlement in 2003—> Daniels v NY upheld in 2007, court finally mandat-
ed ot issue data; showed that police department is still profiling as in 1999
•floyd vs. city of NY- landmark test of the limits of the police to stop and question citizens
•controvercial
•the end of a long trajectory of crime and policing that began over 50 yrs ago
-Mapp, riots, race, politics, Terry and then Terry+
•essential component of modern proactive policing: Wilson and Boland in 1970s told to be
aggressive to get out of car and search for guns/drugs
•is proactive policing inherently biased? tend to look more closely at particular (high crime)
neighborhoods that happen to have high concentrations of minority populations. cannot say
if it is biased because not enough data yet
•normative, policy and empirical tensions
-DOJ role particularly aggressive under Obama admin
-research
-political salience
-Ferguson, Martin, Michael Dunn, Zimmerman—> happening in popular culture and ev-
eryday social interactions. not just about police
•why New York?
-strong constitutional regulation under state law
•Terry more elastic, DeBour more demanding
-diversity of crime, policing, and enforcement
•natural experiments in commercial areas
-extensive reporting of stops, rich data on local crime rates and social conditions
-indicia of suspicion recorded. police have to write down why the person was suspicious
(wearing overcoat in July, turn and run, etc.)
-long history of contentious litigation
•Stop activity 1998-2014 went dramatically down. why? from March 2012 court says that
class of ppl that bring court case have standing to bring court case (class search). NYPD
new plaintiff would win if class search brought up. highest in 2012, cut back dramatically
now
•Stops and Murders 1998-2014 sharp decline. a lot of controversy if whether police activity
brought crime rate down. claim that all of this policing stuff has brought crime rate down.
BUT murders went down when stops were really low, really high, so hard to see connection
•racial proportions of stops 1998-2013: in last two years, when numbers have been going
sharply down, you still see a racial gap
•Litigation history: Daniels, Floyd, Ligon, Davis, Stinson v city of New York
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Doj role particularly aggressive under obama admin. Strong constitutional regulation under state law: terry more elastic, debour more demanding. Diversity of crime, policing, and enforcement: natural experiments in commercial areas. Extensive reporting of stops, rich data on local crime rates and social conditions. Indicia of suspicion recorded. police have to write down why the person was suspicious (wearing overcoat in july, turn and run, etc. ) Long history of contentious litigation: stop activity 1998-2014 went dramatically down. why? from march 2012 court says that class of ppl that bring court case have standing to bring court case (class search). Allocation and pressure- how many cops in proportion to neighborhood. Hit rates- look at individuals. was person arrested before the stop? did they find guns or drugs? if it"s race neutral you should be able to see no difference. Updating- are police learning from mistakes? are they improving over time: floyd court applies hit rates as bias test.
