San Francisco abandons plans for NYC- inspired stop-and-frisk policing
Mayor Ed Lee's proposal was greeted with fierce opposition by groups claiming that stop-and-frisk policies inevitably lead to racial profiling.
By Victoria Cavaliere / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 2:29 PM
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Colleen Long/AP
Det. Anthony Mannuzza, left, and Police Officer Robert Martin, right, simulate a street stop during a training session in New York June 20.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has dropped plans to implement a New York-inspired stop-and-frisk policy following outcry from community leaders and residents who said it would lead to racial profiling.
Instead, Lee was introducing a policy Tuesday that targets gun violence through crime tracking software and community leadership, spokeswoman Christine Falvey said.
“He doesn't want to implement a policy that has the potential to include racial profiling. Looking at best practices, he came up with other options that have a lot more community support,” she said.
In June, Lee discussed the stop-and-frisk policy with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who maintains the NYPD practice has led to a reduction in violent crime and made New York the safest big city in the country.
Lee announced he was considering a similar stop-and-frisk policy in some of San Francisco’s most troubled neighborhoods, which have seen a uptick in crime this year.
JOHN G. MABANGLO/EPA
San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee.
"I think we have to get to the guns. I know we have to find a different way to get to these weapons, and I'm very willing to consider what other cities are doing,” Lee told The San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board.
The announcement was met with anger from politicians and community leaders in San Francisco, who pointed to New York statistics that indicate the vast majority of those stopped in 2011 — 87 percent — were black or Latino. Most were young men.
“If you look at just the numbers in New York, they speak for themselves. It’s almost inevitable the policy would end up targeting minorities,” Theo Ellington, president of the Black Young Democrats of San Francisco, told the Daily News.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco police will use computer analysis to try to track down guns.
The group helped stage a rally on the steps of City Hall two weeks ago and gathered more than 2,000 signatures protesting the proposed policy.
“We need San Francisco solutions to San Francisco problems,” Ellington said.