The NYPD does not engage in “racial profiling,” according to a study by a renowned think tank.
A RAND Corp. study acknowledged that 89 percent of the 500,000 people stopped by the NYPD in 2006 were black or Hispanic, but cautioned that the “raw statistics” serve to “distort the magnitude and, at times, the existence of racially biased policing.”
The department has contended that pedestrian stops reflect descriptions provided by crime victims, but the RAND study concluded the percentage of frisks is largely conducted on a race-neutral basis.
“Overall, after adjustment for stop circumstances, we generally found small racial differences in the rates of frisk, search, use of force and arrest,” noted Greg Ridgeway, author of the nine- month study.
The study focused on 2,756 NYPD cops – about 7 percent of the total number of NYPD cops – who performed approximately 54 percent of all the 2006 stops.
Of the cops studied, just 15, or .05 percent of all NYPD cops, were flagged as stopping, or failing to stop, pedestrians significantly more or less frequently than did their colleagues on racial grounds.