The Efficiency of Frisks in the NYPD, 2004–2010

• Date: 01 June 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016812466570
• Published date: 01 June 2013
• Author: Joseph Ferrandino
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Efficiency of Frisks

in the NYPD, 2004–2010

Joseph Ferrandino

1

Abstract

NewYork Police Department(NYPD) stop and frisk policyhas come under increasingscrutiny in recent

years and has been analyzed exclusivelyin terms of its equity and effectiveness. This study adds a third

approach of policy outcome analysis—technical efficiency—by employing a pooled data envelopment

analysis of all Stop, Question, and Frisk data from all NYPD precincts from 2004 through 2010

(3,410,300 total stops resulting in 1,721,955 total frisks). The results reveal that the NYPD is input

inefficient in many precincts (mean IOTA score ¼.40) but slightly more output efficient (mean IOTA

score ¼.50). The most efficient precincts and boroughs are also identified to set performance

benchmarksfor frisks within the NYPD.According to the input-oriented results(the equity side), there

shouldhave been 1,091,846fewer frisks given theoutputs produced (arrests,guns, and contraband),and

the output-oriented results(effectiveness side)suggest the NYPD shouldhave produced 179,056 more

arrests, found 6,306 more pistols and found 59,883 more instances of contraband to be technically

efficient, given the level frisks throughout the NYPD. Though a certain amount of inefficiency is

enshrined in the friskdecision, these results are placed in the context of police actionsand outcomes

in the NYPD over this time period, and are used to inform both sides of the current debate. This

researchis unique to the police efficiencyliterature andsets the foundation for futureresearch that fully

models efficiency antecedents as well as the outcomes that result from inefficient frisks.

Keywords

NYPD, stop and frisk, technical efficiency, data envelopment analysis

Introduction

The stop and frisk policies of the New York Police Department (NYPD) have come under increasing

scrutiny throughout the past decade. As Jeremy Travis (in Jones-Brown, Gill, & Trone, 2010)

summarizes:

For the past several years, there has been a lively debate in New York City on the efficacy of the stop,

question and frisk policies of the New York City Police Department. Strong claims are made on both

sides of the debate. Proponents of these practices claim that they have made substantial contributions

1

Indiana University-Northwest, Gary, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Joseph Ferrandino, Indiana University-Northwest, 3400 Broadway, Gary, IN 46408, USA.

Email: joferran@iun.edu

Criminal Justice Review

38(2) 149-168

ª2012 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/0734016812466570

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to the crime decline in New York City and have become an essential tool in the Police Department’s

crime prevention toolkit. Critics of these practices claim that the stop, question and frisk policies have

had an unwarranted disparate impact on communities of color and have undermined the legitimacy of the

police and the justice system.

The two sides of this debate have been imbalanced in terms of the research dedicated to each

perspective. A vast majority of NYPD stop and frisk policy analysis has been approached from

an equity standpoint, that is, the race/ethnicity of the suspect stopped and/or frisked relative to their

respective demographics (Center for Constitutional Rights, 2009; Civilian Complaint Review

Board, 2001; Geller & Fagan, 2010; Gelman, Fagan, & Kiss, 2007; Jones-Brown et al., 2010;

Ridgeway, 2007; Spitzer, 1999; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2000). Most of this research,

using various methodological approaches, has found significant disparities in both stops and frisks

among Black and Hispanic citizens. Thus, equity outcomes of NYPD stop and frisk policy have

increasingly become a research focus.

The effectiveness of the policy has been introduced into the debate less often and mainly from the

police perspective to justify the local crime control approach. This framework views the stop and

frisk as a tool of policing that has been effective in reducing crime in New York City and as such,

it has been used aggressively by the NYPD toward that end (see Spitzer, 1999, p. 70). The aggressive

policing methods in New York City are founded in Broken Windows theory combined with

technology-based management and zero-tolerance patrol at the street level (Bass, 2001), which

suggests that enhanced stop and frisk is a purposive course of action to reach a desired end (i.e.,

a policy) rather than an isolated social phenomenon. Maintaining order, a main focus of this

approach, requires proactive police action, increased arrests for lower level offenders (Kelling &

Bratton, 1998) and corresponds with an increased application of stops and frisks (Davis, Ortiz,

Galinskiy, Ylesseva, & Briller, 2004; Geller & Fagan, 2010; Schneider, Chapman, & Schapiro,

2009; Spitzer, 1999; Wilson, 1994). Overall, there is less empirical evidence on the effectiveness

of NYPD stop and frisk policy than on the equity of its application.

Missing altogether is the third focus of policy analysis that has the potential to objectively inform

the other two sides of this debate: technical efficiency. While the equity perspective is mainly

concerned withlimiting inputs (frisks) and the effectiveness perspective mainlyfocuses on increasing

outputs (e.g., finding of weapons and contraband), the efficiency perspective integrates both to deter-

mine the relationship between frisksemployed and outputs produced. The present study represents the

first-known empirical longitudinal efficiency analysis of NYPD ‘‘stop and frisk’’ policy and seeks to

inform the broader debate through exploration of four specific research questions:

1. How technically efficient are NYPD precincts in their frisking of suspects and what is the

departmental trend over time?

2. Given the level of outputs produced, how many fewer frisks should occur in New York City

each year for the department and its precincts to be efficient?

3. Given the amount of frisks performed each year, how many more gun seizures, contraband

discoveries, and arrests should the NYPD be producing for the department and its precincts

to be efficient?

4. What are the most and least efficient precincts in the NYPD relative to stop and frisk policy?

To study these research questions, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is introduced and a review of

the police efficiency literature utilizing DEA is undertaken to place the current study in context as

well as show its unique value within the existing research. Next, the methodology is discussed within

the framework of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions—Terry and Dickerson—which guide the

selection of outputs. The DEA results are then presented, leading to a discussion of NYPD frisk

150 Criminal Justice Review 38(2)