"I would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to," Trump said. "I see what's going on here, I see what's going on in Chicago, I think stop-and-frisk, in New York City, it was so incredible, the way it worked."
The policy, which permits a police officer to stop any pedestrian, ask questions, check documents and perform a search for weapons or contraband, has been used in New York City for over 15 years.
City authorities see this practice as a "zero tolerance" policy that prevents smaller crimes before they become bigger crimes (in criminology, the "broken windows" theory), but most pedestrians stopped by policemen turned out to be either black or Latino. Combined with an extremely low effectiveness rate, as only 10 of those stopped in the streets in 15 years were found to be in violation of a law, the practice is viewed negatively among black and Latino communities.
While Trump has attempted to woo black voters recently, his support of stop and frisk may have the opposite of its intended effect.
