Mayor Bloomberg says the New York Police Department’s policy of street stops that has stirred outrage “should be amended, not ended.”
The mayor spoke Sunday to the congregation at the First Baptist Church of Brownsville, a neighborhood in Brooklyn with one of the city’s highest crime rates.
Bloomberg told worshippers that the NYPD is stepping up its efforts to treat anyone who is stopped “with civility” — not the rough manner Bishop Gerald Seabrooks says is sometimes used, with officers slamming young men against walls.
Bloomberg and the NYPD have defended the program as a help in bringing down crime. Critics say it’s racial profiling. Most of those stopped are black and Hispanic men.