UMSL and New York City
KMOX Radio:
Study: Stop, Question, Frisk Doesn’t Reduce Crime
Despite claims by city officials, local researchers say the police tactic of stopping, questioning and frisking ‘suspicious’ people on the street had no impact on New York City’s two-decade long reduction in crime.
University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologists Richard Rosenfeld and Robert Fornango recently completed the first in-depth study of SQF, looking at statistics on a precinct-wide, year-to-year basis from 2003 to 2010, “If there are effects, what our analysis suggests is that they are probably very localized and dissipate pretty rapidly over time.”
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He says what’s known so far certainly shows that New York City officials are wrong to credit the program with contributing to the decline in crime, “We couldn’t find evidence that stop, question and frisk was associated with year-to-year changes of crime at the precinct-level. It seems to me, given the available evidence, it’s a stretch for officials to attribute a decade-long crime drop that is city-wide to this program.”
As for St. Louis, Rosenfeld says he would recommend the city’s police department not adopt SQF but stick with its current tactic of using intelligence-driven patrols in high crime areas.
Of course two beancounter/criminologists affiliated with a university wants the major police department in their metropolitan areas to use “intelligence-driven” tactics. Guess who specializes in that. By “intelligence-driven,” Profs. Rosenfeld and Fornango don’t mean police having stool pidgeons on a string, they mean CompStat foolishness.
As far as this business about precinct-level versus city-wide, what that means it that SQF done in New York’s ghettos are barrios won’t reduce crime within the ghettos and barrios, but it will wind up reducing crime outside the ghettos and barrios, i.e. in the parts of the city that aren’t black and Hispanic, such as much of Manhattan and Staten Island. What I mean by that is that if NYPD SQFs N’Deshawntavious in Harlem, it won’t result in N’Deshawntavious not jacking Shitavious in Harlem, but it will result in N’Deshantavious not robbing Abraham in the Upper East Side or Giovanni on Staten Island.
I’ve said it before here. SQF isn’t going anywhere. Democrat politicians might huff and puff to placate black preachers and Hispanic rabble rousers, but they won’t blow the house down because SQF keeps Jews in Manhattan safe, and Jews in Manhattan write big checks to Democrat politicians, think tanks, Super PACs, 527s and other affiliated interests, while blacks and Hispanics in Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens are only expected to vote Democrat. Democrats can’t do without money, but they can still win New York State even if a lot of blacks and Hispanics in New York City stay home on election day.