DEPERSONALIZE STOP AND SEARCH

There is much that is wrong with stop and search but there is much that is good about it.  It is a program based solely on looking for unlicensed firearms or weapons. As Donny Deutsch said this morning on Morning Joe (MSNBC), stop and search is a way of focusing resources. He is an advertizing executive who has successfully applied his professional skills to his own career. “Stop and frisk” focuses obviously limited work force to an overwhelming problem. The nature of the task makes it one that is easily criticized. Admittedly, much of the criticism borders on the inane. They had a video clip of a rapper saying that it is wrong that police stop and search him when all he is doing is going to the store—I guess New York should hire psychic police.  On the other hand, there are many serious arguments based on information supplied by the police and demographers.

The first applies to the basic premise: which is that if a person has a licensed gun, it means that he or she has been vetted and is not a criminal. On the other side, if he or she has a licensed gun he or she is a criminal. Obviously, both suppositions can be wrong. The next relates to racial demographics. Something like 52% of new Yorkers are white but 84% of those stopped and frisked are black. New York is a big place and if anything, it is a diverse place. The truth of the matter is that these statistics do not apply to an actual street in a troubled area. For example, the people on the streets are all black in some areas and all white in other areas.

And more to Donny Deutsch’s point, if the police receive a 911 call reporting a robbery by a female, white person with red hair, is if good policy to stop and search and equal number of white people and black people. Or, if a feminist complaining they are picking on women, should they stop and search an equal number of females and males to prove they are not anti female. These are silly examples but the hurtful truth is that in a black neighborhood more blacks commit crimes than do whites and visa versa. However, the crime scenes are not predictable; a robber will tend to go where he is not known and go where the money is.

The real tragedy is that we have to do anything at all but if we have to do it we, as a society, have to figure out a way to cover all contingencies?

I can only think of one circumstance there they do a pretty good job of that and that is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and they do it in a depersonalized way. Rather than stop and frisk by a tough policeman,who do not know the neighborhood, why not use a “no touch search” with metal detector wands in high-crime areas by police who know the neighborhood . . . much less effort put into each search with more searches. Search everyone, even red headed females with their shoes on.  If you do that, then the index of suspicion increases for those who try to avoid a search. 

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