Editor’s Note: Bill de Blasio is the mayor of New York City. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his
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De Blasio: Trump was wrong in claiming stop-and-frisk caused the drop in New York's crime rates
With stop-and-frisk down nearly 97% from 2011, crime in NYC is now at record lows, he says
Once again during Monday night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump – a man with zero law-enforcement experience – misled the American people about crime in New York City. According to Trump, the overuse of stop-and-frisk policing is what made New York City the safest city in America.
He couldn’t be more wrong.
Here in the safest large metropolis in the United States, where the greatest police force on the planet has been driving down crime for decades, we know better than Trump. We have actual facts about crime and they are clear: When we ended the overuse of stop-and-frisk more than two years ago, crime continued to go down.
With stop-and-frisk down nearly 97% from its high point in 2011, crime in New York City is now at record lows. Shootings are down. Murders are down. Serious felony crime is down. We’re taking more guns off the street, our officers are safer than ever and there are fewer civilian complaints about their work.
Excessive stop-and-frisk divides communities. That’s why the New York City Police Department has moved away from it. Under our new Police Commissioner, James O’Neill, we’re investing in real neighborhood policing. It will bring cops and communities closer together and make everyone safer.
Let’s review some history. When our recently retired police commissioner, Bill Bratton, started his first tour of duty in 1994, he and his team instituted data-driven, precision policing. The so-called CompStat system allowed police to see exactly where crime was occurring in real time, apply resources in a targeted way, and stop crime in its tracks.
That’s what began the extraordinary crime drop in New York City. Thanks to precision policing and the bravery and hard work of New Yorkers and our police, a city that once experienced more than 2,000 murders in a year mourned 352 last year.
Stop-and-frisk was not a driver of that public safety progress. Donald Trump’s refusal to admit this and his willingness to inflame tensions for political purposes isn’t just foolish. It’s dangerous.
Our country has a painful history of mistrust between police departments and people of color. The overuse of stop-and-frisk has made those divisions much worse. Tensions on the street rise. Police and communities square off. Residents are less willing to share vital information that can prevent crime.
One of the great dividends of our data-driven policing is that it shows us the vast majority of crimes are committed by a tiny number of people in a small number of places.
As Bill Bratton once said, stop-and-frisk is like chemotherapy. Too high a dose can be fatal, but the right amount can save a person’s life. We’re combining just enough stop-and-frisk with precision policing to fight crime effectively and allow police and communities to envision a better future – together.
That’s a future that Donald Trump, in all his ill-informed cynicism, hasn’t even begun to imagine.