Stop, Question and Frisk in New York Neighborhoods

New York City's police force, in its fight against crime, has increasingly used a strategy known as ''stop, question and frisk,'' which allows officers to stop someone based on a reasonable suspicion of crime.

 One expert has estimated New Yorkers are stopped at twice the national rate. The impact on crime is much debated, and critics contend disproportionate stopping of minorities is a result of racial profiling, which police officials dispute.

SOUTH BRONX is one of the city's high crime centers: Three precincts in the area rank in the top 10 among 74 precincts* in the city for violent crime. In the 40th Precinct, the southernmost tip, police made more than 15,000 stops last year, third highest per capita in the city. Just 608 resulted in arrests, a 4 percent rate.

CENTRAL HARLEM remains one of the highest crime areas of the city, in spite of gentrification. The 25th and 28th precincts rank fourth and seventh in violent crime. Stops here result in unusually high numbers of arrests. In the 25th, 14 percent of stops result in arrest, more than twice the city average.

LOWER EAST SIDE is about average in violent crime and stops. But within the 7th and 9th precincts, stops are concentrated in 10 public housing projects that have more than 27,000 residents. The largest number involve Hispanic residents.

STATEN ISLAND stops are concentrated in Port Richmond, Arlington, New Brighton and Stapleton in the 120th Precinct, which is 57 percent minority. Some of these areas have housing projects.

FULTON STREET in Bedford-Stuyvesant is a locus for hundreds of stops, especially at its busy intersection with Nostrand Avenue. Farther north, housing projects in East Williamsburg and Bushwick form another center of stop-and-frisk activity.

BROWNSVILLE has a heavy concentration of murders, and the surrounding precinct often leads the city in crime. The area is 77 percent black, and has one of the city's densest clusters of public housing.

JACKSON HEIGHTS has intense stop-and-frisk activity, much of it focused on Roosevelt Avenue, but yields few arrests. There are no housing projects in the area. Hispanics make up about 60 percent of the population, but 86 percent of the stops. Officers use force here in 55 percent of stops, more than twice the city average. The crime rate ranks 38th of 74 precincts.

NORTHEAST QUEENS is one of the lowest crime areas of the city. It doesn't escape police stops, but the rate is about 40 percent below the city average. In a precinct that is about 52 percent white, 36 percent of the stops are of whites.

Who Gets Stopped
Mostly young, mostly minorities. More than 90 percent are male.

Intense Policing Microcosm: Brownsville Public Housing
Residents of some parts of the city feel the police presence much more acutely than others. Although frequency of stops is roughly commensurate with the crime rate over broad areas, the police presence in some places is disproportionate.

Microcosm: Brownsville Public Housing
At the heart of the 73rd Precinct are several public housing projects built between 1948 and 1968. At 93 stops for every 100 residents, this area has the heaviest concentration of stops per square mile in the city.

Courtesy of the New York Times - Click for more