Hispanic Stop And Frisk? Study Finds NYC Police Use More Force In Spanish-Speaking Precincts

Stop-and-frisk has been one of the NYPD's most controversial policies. Judge Shira A. Scheindlin's ruling in August came as quite a shock to many New Yorkers: the judge found that the Police Department resorted to a "policy of indirect racial profiling" as it increased the number of stops in minority communities. The findings furthermore revealed that the NYPD has been stopping "blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white." Yet to many Hispanic New Yorkers, the ruling came as no surprise, given that a large number of them face police discrimination on a regular basis.

While the racist nature of the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy has come light, the equally discriminatory police use of force is less understood. The 2011 study from the Center for Constitutional Rights found that the use of force by police was exceptionally higher in among Spanish speakers with a limited English proficiency (LEP). The study found that 60 percent of use-of-force precincts had populations of where more than 25 percent of the population were Spanish speakers with limited English proficiency. By contrast, only 13 out of 76 precincts fit this category Citywide. The study also found that "only two of the top 10 use-of-force precincts were in the top quintile for violent crime, and half had lower arrest rates than the Citywide average. This suggests that higher rates of criminality among those stopped was not the primary driver for high use-of-force." Other than downtown Manhattan, these LEP precincts had the highest use-of-force rates in the city over the last eight years.

The findings come on the back of similar results in regards to stop-and-frisk: the CCR found that of the 685,724 people stopped in 2011, 84 percent were Black and Latino residents "although they comprise only about 23 percent and 29 percent of New York City's total population respectively." The topic was a hot-button issue during this year's mayoral race, with many candidates speaking out against the policy despite Mayor Bloomberg's contention that it is responsible for New York's drop in crime rate. Democratic candidate Bill Deblasio has been one of the policy's fiercest opponents and promises to end the policy if elected. Though whether he will tackle the equally serious problem of use of force remains to be seen.