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Report: Bias Evident in Philadelphia Stop-and-Frisk Practice
Source: Associated Press
Report: Bias Evident in Philadelphia Stop-and-Frisk Practice
By ERRIN HAINES WHACK, ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA — Mar 22, 2016, 11:39 AM ET
More than a third of stops and frisks conducted by the Philadelphia Police Department in the first half of 2015 were made without reasonable suspicion, according to a report filed Tuesday in federal court by a group of civil rights lawyers.
The department has been under a federal consent decree since 2011. According to the report, 33 percent of all stops and 42 percent of all frisks were made without reasonable suspicion. Of those, black residents were the subject of 69 percent of stops and 57 percent of frisks.
Philadelphia's black population is 44 percent. The report found that the racial disparities "cannot be explained by non-racial factors," but responding to the report during a news conference, Commissioner Richard Ross said the gap is not the result of bias but rather a response to an increased need for policing in black areas.
"That is a fact that you can't deny," Ross said, adding that people in black neighborhoods in the city are victimized at a higher rate. "When people talk about neighborhoods being overpoliced, where would you suggest we have them?"
The report also indicates that despite blacks being frisked more often, those searches are considerably less likely to turn up anything than those of whites.
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By ERRIN HAINES WHACK, ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA — Mar 22, 2016, 11:39 AM ET
More than a third of stops and frisks conducted by the Philadelphia Police Department in the first half of 2015 were made without reasonable suspicion, according to a report filed Tuesday in federal court by a group of civil rights lawyers.
The department has been under a federal consent decree since 2011. According to the report, 33 percent of all stops and 42 percent of all frisks were made without reasonable suspicion. Of those, black residents were the subject of 69 percent of stops and 57 percent of frisks.
Philadelphia's black population is 44 percent. The report found that the racial disparities "cannot be explained by non-racial factors," but responding to the report during a news conference, Commissioner Richard Ross said the gap is not the result of bias but rather a response to an increased need for policing in black areas.
"That is a fact that you can't deny," Ross said, adding that people in black neighborhoods in the city are victimized at a higher rate. "When people talk about neighborhoods being overpoliced, where would you suggest we have them?"
The report also indicates that despite blacks being frisked more often, those searches are considerably less likely to turn up anything than those of whites.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/report-bias-evident-philadelphia-stop-frisk-practice-37840211