Flatbush: Speak Out About Stop and Frisk at Police-Community Meetup

FLATBUSH/DITMAS PARK — Not-for-profit community group East Flatbush Village, Inc. will host a forum Wednesday focused on additional reforms to the NYPD's use of stop and frisk, as well as stops related to trespassing.

The meeting will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 30 at Vanderveer Park United Methodist Church, located at 3114 Glenwood Rd. Anyone interested in attending can RSVP online here.

The event is being co-sponsored by the Church, the NYPD's Civilian Observation Patrol — described on the NYPD's website as "a neighborhood watch program involving responsible civilians who volunteer to act as the eyes and ears of the Police Department" — and the East 29th St. Block Association.

According to organizers, the meeting will let community members "brainstorm creative solutions to policing practices."

The NYPD's use of stop and frisk has decreased drastically in recent years, though it is still employed by officers.

According to data compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union, stop and frisk incidents increased from 97,296 in 2002 to a high of 685,724 in 2011.

In 2015, 22,939 stop and frisk incidents took place, while 7,636 were recorded during the first two quarters of 2016.

Critics of the practice say it has unfairly targeted minority communities, and in a 2014 court ruling, Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the tactic was used unconstitutionally by the NYPD between 2004 and 2012.

The Bloomberg administration appealed the ruling, by Mayor Bill de Blasio abandoned that appeal after taking office. Under his administration, the NYPD has reduced its use of the practice, as shown by the numbers above.

The issue recently received national prominence when President-Elect Donald Trump defended stop and frisk during his first debate with Hillary Clinton.

But following Trump's election, de Blasio said the President-Elect "cannot tell us how to police our streets. We’re not going back to a broken policy of stop and frisk. That will never happen on my watch."

Pictured at top: Patch file photo