De Blasio: If We Re-Institute Stop & Frisk We’ll Increase Tension Between Police, Minorities

‘It created a huge amount of division between police and community’

BLASIO: "That's -- I understand people say that. That's just not the history. The history is that Bill Bratton came in in 1994, instituted COMSTAT, which was a systematic strategic approach to policing. That's what really started the change even before David Dinkins increased the police force here. That's what changed things in New York City. Stop and frisk was for -- it was intensified for a limited period of time in the last decade, in particular. And the bottom line is it created a huge amount of division between police and community. We ended that unconstitutional use of stop and frisk. That overuse of stop and frisk. What's happened in the three years since we made the change? Crime has gone down consistently since we actually stopped using it. Bill Bratton would say that what we need to do in law and safety is bring police and community closer together. That's what proved to be the case. So, you know, Donald Trump talks about stop and frisk like he knows the facts. He has had no experience with policing, no experience with public safety. He should really be careful because if we re-instituted stop and frisk all over this country, you would see a lot more tension between police and community." 
 

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