Assume The Position! Or Not?

“Assume the position” may cease to occur in conversation between police and suspects as federal and state courts question stop and frisk practices.

A guilty party of overusing frisking, New York City Police Department (NYPD) may have to resort to other tactics as opposition of the frisking policy enlarges. Experts say that NYPD will inevitably have to change their policy as citizens begin to question the true motives behind stop and frisk. Several people in New York City wonder if racial profiling plays any part in the increasing number of stops. Federal intervention was required after a poll suggested that race could influence the growing number of frisks.

 “More than 80 percent of those stopped in New York are black or Latino, and last year there were 686,000 stops, with this year’s numbers heading higher,” Randolph M. McLaughlin, a law professor at Pace University. A majority of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Manhattan favored a cessation of the policy claiming it bordered violating individuals’ constitutional rights. For more on the future of stop and frisk practices check out the NYT’s coverage.