Racial Profiling: Understanding the Practice of Stop-and-Frisk in New York City

Abstract

Racial profiling has become a prominent issue in modern policing today. Instead of being based on individual suspicion, racial profiling embodies a belief that people of color are continuously singled out by the police for scrutiny and harassment. Policies and procedures make the Black community vulnerable to police discrimination and racial profiling. Floyd et al. v. City of New York et al. (2013) declared that the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) practice of stop-and-frisk was racially profiling Black civilians. This study sought (1) to determine if the NYPD post- Floyd is still engaging in racial profiling towards Black civilians; and (2) to evaluate the relationship between race and the number of stops, frisks, and arrests with the T-test. Based on the data released by the NYPD from 2011 to 2015 and 2019 (N=1,492,295), results indicated that the NYPD is engaging in racial profiling towards Black civilians post- Floyd and that there is a relationship between race and the number of stops, frisks, and arrests between Black and White civilians. The results contribute to a wider research consensus that racial profiling and discrimination are a presence in police practices in the United States.