Around 60 years ago in 1968, the US Supreme Court validated, in the case Terry v. Ohio, that law enforcement had the right to pat down a suspects outer clothing for illegal items as long as the officer had reasonable suspicions to do so. At the time, it was unlikely that the Supreme Court would have predicted how widespread, popular, and controversial this decision would be (Meares). The decision led to what is now known as the stop, question, and frisk policy (SQF), which is a practice employed by the New York Police Department where officers can temporarily detain, question, and with reasonable suspicion, search civilians on the street for illegal contraband and weapons. This policy has gained a high controversial status due to questions…show more content… Although it can act as a deterrent for unlawful possession of illegal substances, the stop and frisk policy in New York City is both ineffective and unconstitutional in reducing crime rates as it is technically inefficient in its’ day to day applications it is unconstitutional as many consider it to violate the prohibition of unreasonable search and seizures stated in the 4th Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment. Even though this policy is fundamentally unconstitutional, it is still enacted in New York City which can lead to further violations of our basic rights as American citizens, giving too much power to the federal government. In the extreme, this can potentially cause our government to go from a democracy to a dictatorship and this is why it is important for the public to realize why this policy should be…show more content… In the Floyd v. City of New York trial, a class action lawsuit was filed against New York stating that the city was violating citizens 4th and 14th Amendment rights, because of the police department's widespread practice of unwarranted stops and frisks of African-American and Latino suspects. Statistical analysis performed for this trial showed that “within any area” of New York City, “regardless of its racial composition, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be stopped than whites” (Bellin). Further studies show that in 2003, black suspects were stopped at a rate 2.6 times greater than Hispanics and 5.4 times greater than whites. By 2010, those stop ratios had risen to 3.2 and 9.3 respectively (Evans and
