History Of Stop And Frisk

Stop and Frisk is a program that is utilized by the New York City Police Department. The Stop and Frisk program consists of law enforcement officers having the ability to detain a person upon a reasonable suspicion of that person’s involvement in a crime. The officers do not need to have probable cause to make an arrest in order to initiate a Stop and Frisk. During a Stop and Frisk, an officer is permitted to stop a person, ask them questions, and perform a light pat down over their clothing to ensure that they are not carrying any concealed weapons. The term Stop and Frisk is also known as the Terry Stop, because the standards for the Terry Stop were established during the 1968 case called Terry v. Ohio.

In the Terry v. Ohio case, John W. Terry and Richard Chilton raised the suspicion of an undercover officer as they continuously walked back and forth from one corner to another on the same street. In addition to walking back and forth from corner to corner on the same block, they repeatedly stopped and looked through the same store window a dozen times. The officer suspecting that the men were casing the establishment in order to commit an armed robbery, decided to confront them after observing them for ten minutes. The officer stopped the men, identified himself and asked the men for their names. The men did not respond to the officer’s request.

Since the officers had observed the men for some time and suspected that they were armed, they performed a light pat down over the clothes of the suspects to search for weapons. A quick pat down of the suspects produced two concealed guns, and Terry was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. Terry’s defense attorney motioned the Court to suppress the weapon seized by the officers as ...

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...lly endanger the public by allowing the suspect to retrieve such weapon. With this logic in mind, an officer’s order to empty the pockets of a suspect is much more likely a search for drugs or illegal substances rather than the guns and knives that are supposed to be the targets of a Terry stop.

It’s a clear belief that the Stop and Frisk procedure undeniably plays a major role in the reduction of crime and will continue to be in use in most cities of the Nation. However, an effort should be made to improve its use. Officers should be trained to make stops based on the dangerous behavior of an individual rather than an unwarranted suspicion of drugs, other illegal substances or simply based on ethnicity. In doing so the overall effectiveness and social acceptance of the Stop and Frisk program should rise while courtesy, professionalism, and respect will be restored.