CPD Stop-And-Frisk Policy Targets Blacks by Design - DC Crime Institute

The District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute Director John Roman said that the Chicago Police Department has consciously chosen to target African-Americans by implementing a stop-and-frisk program that is both controversial as well as counter-productive.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has consciously chosen to target African-Americans by implementing a stop-and-frisk program that is both controversial as well as counter-productive, The District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute Director John Roman told Sputnik.

“Stop-and-frisk is a policy. And it’s a policy that overwhelmingly targets African-Americans. And it’s a choice by a police department and they’ve [CPD] made a choice to do this,” Roman said on Friday.

Stop-and-frisk is a practice of stopping a person on suspicion of criminal wrongdoing. The suspect is often subject to questioning and a search.

Seventy-two percent of the people stopped by the CPD are African-Americans even though they comprise only 32 percent of the population of Chicago, according to a recent study by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Stop-and-frisk has also proven to be ineffective at fighting crime and has backfired on the Chicago police, according to Roman.

“The vast majority of those stopped are not committing crimes at all. All this policy does is create distrust between the police and the community,” Roman explained.

Roman said there is absolutely no evidence that the stop-and-frisk program has any value, evidenced by the fact it was an utter failure in New York City and abandoned by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The policy is also a poor use of limited resources because stopping and frisking innocent people all day diverts attention from pursuing real criminals.

“You go after a guy who has been arrested and convicted three times on a gun-related violence charge. But we’re not out looking for him. We’re looking for the kid walking down the street in a hoodie. It’s just a total waste,” Roman said.

The policy tries to place a band aid over the real underlying problem of urban crime, according to Roman.

The main driver being poor people packed into dense places in what Roman refers to as “concentrated disadvantage.”

The solution, according to Roman, is to desegregate and focus resources on these communities so they can thrive.

“Because the research is overwhelming that it’s the places that poison the people, it’s not the people that poison the place,” Roman concluded.

The ACLU report comes amid growing discontent over racially discriminatory policing practices in the United States. Late last year, mass protests erupted across the US following non-indictments of two white police officers who shot dead unarmed black men.