In an effort to improve New York City policing practices, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a discussion with local clergy surrounding stop-and-frisk procedures, a part of policing that has become routine and disproportionately targets African-American and Hispanics. the Rev. David Brawley and Grant Lindsay offer a stop-and-frisk alternative in their op-ed in the New York Daily News.
The question the mayor and police commissioner keep asking is: What other alternatives exist to rid the streets of guns and apprehend the criminals in our midst?
There are credible answers. Here are ours:
— Use Compstat the way it was used by Police Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani: focus on the diminishing number of serious serial criminals, not the vast numbers of innocent young minority males who go to school, work, church or the gym, as every other group does.
— Teach precinct commanders to work more closely and collaboratively with groups like East Brooklyn Congregations and South Bronx Churches and Manhattan Together — organizations deeply committed to public safety and handgun control.
— Redeploy officers from tourism duty in Manhattan to the remaining high-crime areas — particularly the New York City Housing Authority developments that remain dangerous to so many of their decent tenants. Use them to proactively police, not indiscriminately stop young people.
Read the Rev. David Brawley and Grant Lindsay's entire op-ed in the New York Dail y News.