By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — The NYPD's "Stop and Frisk" numbers jumped 8 percent in 2009 — despite the city's record-low crime rates last year, according to data released by the police department Tuesday evening.
The long awaited statistics showed that 87 percent of those stopped were Hispanic or black, the NYPD said. These two minority groups made up 95 percent of the violent crime suspects in 2009.
The contentious "Stop and Frisk" policy, which allows police officers to stop and search people they believe may be involved in a crime, has enraged local politicians and advocacy groups for years.
Both Rev. Al Sharpton and the New York Civil Liberties Union have spoken out repeatedly against the policy, saying that it is a race-based practice.
“In just the past year, the NYPD has stopped enough totally innocent New Yorkers to fill Yankee Stadium nine times over,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the NYCLU said in a statement.
“It is a stunning abuse of power. It is not a crime to walk down the street in New York City, yet every day innocent black and brown New Yorkers are turned into suspects for doing just that.”
Of the 575,304 people stopped by NYPD officers in 2009, just 6 percent resulted in arrests.
There were 7,612 weapons recovered as a result of stops in 2009. Most of the weapons found were knives, but there were also 762 guns, including four machine guns, 36 assault weapons, 693 handguns and 29 rifles.
"These stops save lives," Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said in an e-mailed comment.
The NYPD has been under increasing pressure lately to be transparent with its numbers following revelations that their crime reporting may be inaccurate because of the pressures involved in the Compstat process, the tool the NYPD uses to track crime statistics.
On Tuesday, "Citizens Crime Commission of New York City" — led by former candidate for district attorney Richard Aborn — called for the NYPD to release all the details of its internal audits of crime statistics.
