Democracy in America | Police tactics

Stopped and tsked

A judge calls for reform of a controversial law-enforcement programme

By S.M. | NEW YORK

THE New York Police Department got an earful from Shira Scheindlin, a federal judge, on the morning of August 12th. In the case of Floyd v City of New York, America’s largest police force was chastised for its “stop and frisk” policy whereby, over the past nine years, 4.4m people were spontaneously stopped and searched on the suspicion "that criminal activity ‘may be afoot’".

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