Bloomberg Apologizes for New York Stop-and-Frisk Policy

A police car patrols the city. (Wikimedia Commons)

Michael Bloomberg apologized for pushing stop-and-frisk measures on November 17 during his 2002-2013 tenure as New York City’s mayor. As Bloomberg starts his bid for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, many view his sudden reversal as disingenuous. 

The policy of stop-and-frisk results from a Supreme Court decision in 1968, Terry v. Ohio. The Supreme Court ruled police officers could stop, question, and frisk individuals without violating the 4th Amendment right to unreasonable search and seizures. Since Terry v. Ohio, the so-called ‘Terry stop’ has been a widely-used, controversial policing tool. 

In the 1980s and early 1990s, crime was rampant in New York. Rudy Giuliani ran his 1993 mayoral campaign on anti-crime sentiment, appointing William Bratton as his police commissioner. Crime in New York dropped dramatically, which many accredited to Giuliani and Bratton’s ‘broken windows’ policing philosophy. During Giuliani’s mayoral term, ‘broken windows’ policing garnered support from both conservatives and liberals, with its success winning Giuliani reelection in 1997. 

‘Broken windows’ policing focuses on strict enforcement but lenient punishment for low-level crimes, which reduces serious crimes in the long-run. In theory, low-level crime enforcement discourages serious crime. Since the 1990s, however, many have criticized ‘broken windows’ policing and stop-and-frisk policy. New York’s drop in crime can be explained by other factors, such as a statistical phenomenon known as “reversion to the mean,” Columbia University law professor Bernard Harcourt argued in a 2016 NPR interview. 

When Bloomberg succeeded Giuliani in 2001, he continued to promote and push for stop-and-frisk. According to data from the New York Civil Liberties Union, police stops increased from 97,296 in 2002 to 532,911stops in 2012. Of those stopped in 2012, nearly 90 percent were innocent. For every year data was recorded, stops disproportionately affected Latinx and African-American individuals. 

In 2013, a federal judge ruled the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practice unconstitutional and required reformatory measures. Under a court-mandated federal monitor, police stops fell drastically in New York from 532,911 to 45,787. Bloomberg wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post defending the stop-and-frisk policy, claiming it reduced violent crime in New York. 

Bloomberg’s sudden flip-flop is unsurprising. As he prepares to enter a crowded field for the Democratic Presidential nomination, his record will be scrutinized. Candidates’ records on race are subject to frequent criticism, such as Joe Biden’s defense of segregation and busing in the 1970s. Current New York mayor and former Presidential candidate Bill De Blasio immediately rebuked Bloomberg, labeling his apology “transparent and cynical.”

Few have accepted Bloomberg’s apology. Patrick Lynch, President of the Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement on November 17, “The apology is too little, too late.” On the eve of a presidential run, Lynch and others see Bloomberg’s apology as politically motivated. 

For both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s elections, minority votes were vital for success. As Democrats gear up or a showdown in 2020, they will seek candidates with good race-relations. In the words of The New York Times’ Charles Blow, “This is a necessary apology, but a hard one to take, coming only now, as he considers a run for the Democratic nomination, a nomination that is nearly impossible to secure without the black vote. It feels like the very definition of pandering.”