I've tried several times to explain that "stop and frisk," the three word phrase that most media have used to summarize the entire Nutter crime plan, is much more than its detractors have tried to portray it. So many times, in fact, that I don't feel like linking to all of them.
Today, in the Daily Pennsylvanian, Professor Lawrence Sherman, who has studied the deployment of targeted gun patrols, explains why it can work and be consistent with civil rights. In fact, if practiced as its supposed to be, it can actually aid in the relationship between the police force and the residents of the city's most crime-plagued neighborhoods. Sherman points out that the recent murder of police officer Chuck Cassidy and the intense search that followed (including many stops that might push the constitutionally accept "Terry stop" criteria) should not be taken as examples of what a properly executed strategy would look like.
Sherman:
In the aftermath of the tragic murder of Philadelphia police officer Chuck Cassidy, hundreds of Philadelphia police looked for a young black male suspect in high-crime areas. Before the confessed killer was found in Miami, many observers alleged that police conducted illegal searches without adequate reason to suspect the persons searched. Opponents of stop and frisk cited that as evidence of the risks of such a policy.
What the alleged abuses did not show, however, is that the stop and frisk research was wrong. While the search for a police murderer was undertaken by officers in many different units, the seven tests of stop and frisk were conducted by officers specially trained and supervised for the task.
No complaints of misuse surfaced in any of these tests. Under proper guidance, the Philadelphia police are more than capable of training such units to operate legally and politely.
The cops who would carry out this tactic in specifically targeted zones would be carefully selected, most likely through a rigorous screening process to determine whether they are likely to operate "legally and politely," and highly trained. They would strive to become familiar and trusted faces within the targeted communities and they would explain what they are trying to do and try to allay any concerns that law abiding residents may have.
Sherman continues his op-ed with some excellent points about targeting the resources of Philadelphia's law enforcement system (the "Law"and the "Order" duhn duhn) towards the people most likely to commit the crimes.
Sherman again:
The idea of "triage" in criminal justice resources has even broader implications. Just as the National Academy of Science report found policing to be more effective when focused on a few "hot spots" of crime rather than spreading police evenly across a city, so to could the entire criminal justice system take the same approach. Prosecution, trial preparation and sentencing could all emphasize the cases that pose the greatest harm to the public.
The most surprising result of a risk-based approach, such as the policies developed over the past decade in Virginia, is that they can also reduce the prison population. Virginia has seen both its number of crimes and prisoners go down since it adopted risk-based sentencing guidelines. This idea is also controversial, since it places more emphasis on the criminal than on the crime. Yet sentencing policies in many democracies increasingly make that choice, including those in England and Scandinavia.
Philadelphia could reduce both crime and taxes with fewer people in prison.
In other words, put the police where the crime is most likely to happen and focus the prosecutors on the people most likely to commit the crimes again if they happen to go free.
The guy's pretty damn smart. Let's hope someone in City Hall puts him on speed dial.
Comments (51)
Why does Sylvester Johnson try to create an issue, spin a problem, out of what police do every day?
People love "Law and Order" the tv show because they have such a need to see a system that works.
The real version in Philly is slow, cumbersome, redundant, low tech, and police complain that they arrest the same people over and over again in the same areas.
I am extremely curious as to what Sylvester Johnson could be decrying, since stop and frisk is police work 101.
What is Sylvester and John Street really defending, if stop and frisk is policy now, and if targeting crime areas with Comp Stat is still procedure?
What is the issue?
There will always be someone, likely who has drugs/guns, who cries that he's being violated.
Posted by Anonymous | December 11, 2007 6:36 PM
Dealers and gangstas remind me of that Monty Python movie, where King Arthur rides up, explains the civil law, and the peasant claims he's a member of a collective, and Arthur says, "no, I'm your king."
The peasant says, "help, help, I'm being oppressed!"
People want to live by the Uhuru law of the streets that says
1.there should be no prisons, and
2. if you don't get a job you like that pays a lot, you are free to ignore the laws
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Sylvester and Street just perpetrate this because the don't seem interested in educating the public about what the police have the right to do, and what law abiding citizens have the right to expect police to do.
What could Johnson's problem really be? Is he running for office? Has there been some scandal in the police department about the use of police procedure?
What then?
Posted by Anonymous | December 11, 2007 6:40 PM
Street and Johnson have the "you can't arrest your way out of this" mentality. Sorry, thought that's why they gave the police handcuffs.
While the nation's prison are full, and incarceration is high in the rest of the country, Philly has 10,000 residents wanted on bench warrants.
That means they are roaming Philly, are wanted in court but likely didn't show up. The prison system in the city holds about 10,000 people at its most full point, and that is too full.
So, if we have 10,000 used spaces max, and we still have 10,000 people with bench warrants, I would guess that we have a deficit of 10,000 spaces or beds.
We need to double our county (city) prison capacity. We're under what we need.
So is that why Street and Johnson oppose stop and frisk while cops continue to do it every hour of the day?
Just because the nation has a high incarceration rate doesn't mean that a city of 1.4 million that needs 20,000 beds for local prison space has "too many black men in prison."
At some point, the common sense of not overgeneralizing has to prevail.
Posted by Anonymous | December 11, 2007 6:45 PM
John Street will just educate everyone, that'll fix everything. What a bafoon! Most of our city's criminals are way beyond education. Many are raised with parents they would have been better off without and neglected unimaginably. These underlying issues will take decades to improve with infinite resources , but the crime problem of Philadelphia is now. We don't need to theorize about the causes, we need to combat the problem. Stop and Frisk does that.
Posted by Greg | December 11, 2007 8:40 PM
Using the term "stop and frisk" to describe the tactic that Sherman studies and that Nutter endorses is at the root of the problem. Sherman himself calls the strategy "Hot Spot" policing. In this strategy an area with particularly high gun crime rates receives increased police patrols. These patrols are targeted at identifying concealed weapons and getting them off the streets.
The result, in the municipalities where Sherman has helped implement and then studied this tactic, is a statistically significant reduction in gun crimes and homicides in the target areas with no statistically significant displacement of gun crimes to other parts of the city. In other words, just what Philly needs.
Quiet simply, using hot spot patrols is just smart, targeted policing and deployment of resources. It is not the same as merely increasing the use of stop and frisk. Nor is it the same as decreeing that more charges will result in arrest and detention. However, if the new mayor and the new police commissioner continue to accept the term "stop and frisk" to describe hot spot policing, critics will continue to worry that they are in favor of increasing privacy violations and of locking more people up – two tactics that are not only contrary to civil rights and liberties, but are also ineffective for getting guns off the streets.
If the new administration does not quickly move to shift the language around their criminal justice strategy from “stop and frisk” to “hot spot” policing, this sensible policy will, unfortunately, be dead before it can succeed -- just like the many Philadelphians who are victims of gun violence.
Posted by Claire | December 20, 2007 9:32 PM
Again our country shows it's racist and disrespectfully hand! NYPD stop and frisk policy turns out to be stop and frisk and disrespect black people! WHO IS NOT SURPRISE? Only 2% of the stop resulted in something illegal. But that does not stop the NYPD these are black people . America's Boogie Man" ! The constitution for people of color does not apply! None of the Supreme Court Justice that see reports on TV and news paper say anything about the abuse! There is no white leadership or law enforcement leadership stepping in and saying this is unconstititional! White serial child molestors and abuser are respected by law enforcement more so then black innocent citizen! After Columbine High School massacre occurred where two white teens murder 14 white people 1 black. There was no stop and frisk of white Americans! John Wayne Cassey white murder 33 white young men afterwards their was no stop and frisk of white men policy! Given the history of white hatred and police brutality against black citizen! Only a idiot would allow law enforcement to stop and frisk just black people! Knowing their will be that one black stupid person that is going to be fed up and run! Innocent or not and the answer will be death for running! I thought he had a gun" I was in fear of my life" so we shot 41 to 50 bullets at a unarmed citizen SO -SAD TO -BAD should not have run! Where is the ACLU! Where is the President! While black men and women are fighting and dying in two wars for the freedom and right of these racist disrespectful cops SHAME ON US ALL!
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