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Stop-and-Frisks in Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen Far Outpaced by Midtown South

By Mathew Katz | February 5, 2013 6:33pm | Updated on February 6, 2013 6:37pm
  Stop and frisk numbers in the 10th and Midtown North Precincts were smaller than their neighbors.
Stop and frisk numbers in the 10th and Midtown North Precincts were smaller than their neighbors.
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Flickr/Nick.Allen

CHELSEA — Police stopped and frisked relatively few people in Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen in 2011, according to a report on the practice released by the NYPD.

In the 10th Precinct, which covers Chelsea and portions of Hell's Kitchen, there were only 3,089 stops in 2011. In the Midtown North Precinct, which covers much of northern Hell's Kitchen and tourist-heavy Midtown, there were 3,633 stops. 

Both had significantly fewer stops than neighboring Midtown South, where officers stopped 10,665 people despite the area having a smaller population than both the 10th and Midtown North Precincts.

Further east in the 13th Precinct, officers stopped 5,252 people in 2011.

In the 10th Precinct, the most common crime suspected during the stops was robbery, accounting for 23.5 percent of stops.

According to Deputy Inspect Elisa Cokkinos, the 10th Precinct's commanding officer, the neighborhood's fastest rising crime is identity theft, which is largely unaffected by the controversial stop and frisk practice. 

"Right now, we finished three percent up in crime for 2012," she said at a recent Precinct Community Council meeting.

"If we didn't have an increase in identity theft, we would have an eight percent decrease in crime."

In Midtown North, where precinct officials say officers routinely deal with bag snatchings and pickpockets in crowded areas, the top reason for the stop and frisk was grand larceny, accounting for 26.9 percent of all stops in 2011.

In both precincts, officers stopped and frisked an overwhelming amount of blacks and Hispanics, despite the majority of Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen being white. The trend is similar across the city.

In the 10th Precinct, 54.9 percent of those stopped were black despite being only 6.9 percent of the residential population and Hispanics made up 24.6 percent of stops while only making up 17.8 percent of the people living there.

Minorities, including Asians, made up about 75 percent of "all known crimes suspects" in the 10th Precinct and accounted for 83 percent of all stops, according to the report.

There was a similar picture in Midtown North, where blacks made up 50.3 percent of stops and 5 percent of the population, and Hispanics made up 26.3 percent of people stopped and only 16.4 percent of the population.

Minorities, including Asians, made up about about 66 percent of "all known crimes suspects" in Midtown North Precinct and accounted for 81 percent of all stops, the report says.