Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union - Open Society ...

49. Studies have confirmed the negative impact ethnic profiling has on hit rates. A 1999 reviewof stop and frisk practices by the New York Police Department showed that although the Latinopopulation of New York was about 22 percent, Latinos made up about 33 percent of all of thosepolice stopped and frisked; the black population was approximately 24 percent, yet comprised about52 percent of those stopped and frisked. By contrast, the city’s white population (which constitutes40 percent of the city’s overall population) only made up about ten percent of all of those stoppedand frisked. The data showed a hit rate of 12.6 percent for whites, 11.5 percent for Latinos and 10.5percent for blacks. Profiling correlated directly to reduced efficiency of stops. Eliot Spitzer, AttorneyGeneral of the State of New York, The New York City Police Department’s ‘Stop and Frisk’ Practices:A Report to the People of the State of New York, New York, December 1, 1999.50. This figure was somewhat inflated by the inclusion of items such as penknives. E.J. van derTorre and H.B. Ferwerda, “Preventief fouilleren, Een analyse van het proces en de externe effectenin tien gemeenten” (Preventive searching, an analysis of the process and the external effects inten municipalities Politie & Wetenschap, 2005). Data are available from 187 preventive search operationsconducted from 2002 to 2004 in the cities of Amsterdam, Maastricht, Haarlemmermeer,Den Helder, Rotterdam, Heerlen, Utrecht, and Tilburg. Data include information on the cost ofthe policy in terms of man-hours, and on police conduct. During these operations, 79,499 personswere searched and 2,010 weapons (as defined by the Weapons and Ammunition Act) were found:68 percent stabbing weapons; 16.8 percent were striking weapons and 2.6 percent were firearms(52 units); 12.6 percent fall into a category of “other.” The study involving all 10 cities suggests thatcreative accounting took place on a modest scale to increase the seeming effectiveness of the results.Thus hobby knives (fishing knives), for example, were also counted.51. Ibid. During 54 preventive search operations in Amsterdam from November 2002 to March2004, police searched 32,332 individuals and detected 702 weapons, only 15 of which were firearms.The operation cost 11,687 officer hours. Results in Rotterdam were similar: in 50 operations totaling9,124 officer hours, 18,687 searches were carried out that detected 578 weapons, 23 of which werefirearms.52. Joel Miller, Nick Bland and Paul Quinton, “The Impact of Stops and Searches on Crime andthe Community,” Police Research Series Paper 127, London: Home Office, 2000; Ronald Weitzer andSteven A. Tuch, “Determinants of Public Satisfaction with the Police,” in Police Quarterly No. 8(3)2005: 279–297; Joel Miller, Robert C. Davis, Nicole J. Henderson, John Markovic and ChristopherW. Ortiz, “Public Opinions of the Police: The Influence of Friends, Family, and Media,” NationalInstitute of Justice Technical Report (2001-IJ-CX-0038); Dennis P. Rosenbaum, Amie M. Schuck,Sandra K. Costello, Darnell F. Hawkins, and Marianne K. Ring, “Attitudes toward the police: Theeffects of direct and vicarious experience,” Police Quarterly No. 8(3), 2005, 343–365.53. John D. McCluskey, Stephen D. Mastrofski, and Roger B. Parks, “To acquiesce or rebel:Predicting citizen compliance with police requests,” Police Quarterly No. 2, 389–416.54. Rod Morgan and Tim Newburn, The Future of Policing, Oxford: Clarendon Press/OxfordUniversity Press, 1997.55. Ibid.56. C. Stone and H. Ward, “Democratic Policing; A Framework for Action,” Policing and Society,Vol. 10, No. 1, 11–45.210 NOTES