In public policy, results do matter

Published 7:42 pm Thursday, July 25, 2013

Success is a pretty powerful argument. Even detractors of New York City’s “stop and frisk” policing have to admit crime is down in that city. Now, New York’s Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is defending the practice, and pointing to its phenomenal success.

“Since 2002, the New York Police Department has taken tens of thousands of weapons off the street through proactive policing strategies,” Kelly writes in the Wall Street Journal. “The effect this has had on the murder rate is staggering. In the 11 years before Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office, there were 13,212 murders in New York City. During the 11 years of his administration, there have been 5,849. That’s 7,383 lives saved — and if history is a guide, they are largely the lives of young men of color. So far this year, murders are down 29 percent from the 50-year low achieved in 2012, and we’ve seen the fewest shootings in two decades.”

Why is Kelly defending “stop and frisk” now? Because he’s found himself caught up in a larger national discussion of racial profiling. And he’s also being talked up for the position of director of Homeland Security.

Critics lump “stop and frisk” in with “stand your ground” laws. Al Sharpton, for example, said last week, “When you look at these state laws — Stop and Frisk in New York, 33 states with Stand Your Ground, Stop and Frisk in other states — these state laws are the 21st century version of state laws that Dr. King and others fought 50 years ago.”

But that’s mischaracterizing “stop and frisk,” Kelly contends.

“Racial profiling is a disingenuous charge at best and an incendiary one at worst, particularly in the wake of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin,” Kelly writes. “The effect is to obscure the rock-solid legal and constitutional foundation underpinning the police department’s tactics and the painstaking analysis that determines how we employ them.”

In fact, the policy is based on common sense. The department puts more police in areas with higher crime.

“In 2003, when the NYPD recognized that 96 percent of the individuals who were shot and 90 percent of those murdered were black and Hispanic, we concentrated our officers in those minority neighborhoods that had experienced spikes in crime,” Kelly explains. “This program is called Operation Impact.”

That focus explains why a higher percentage of minorities are stopped.

“It’s understandable that someone who has done nothing wrong will be angry if he is stopped,” Kelly acknowledges. “Last year, the NYPD announced a series of steps to strengthen the oversight and training involved in this tactic. The number of civilian complaints in 2012 was the lowest in the past five years. That’s progress — and we always strive to do better.”

The reason this matters — even in Tyler, Texas — is that results matter. As we continue with a national discussion about race, platitudes must not take precedence over facts.

Of course we should be sensitive to how others perceive policies, but to ignore facts, as Kelly points out, “would be a form of discrimination in itself.”