Rochelle Simpson
Capstone
June 5, 2013 Topic: Why do African Americans and Hispanics feel that they are targeted for Stop Question and Frisk?

Review of the Literature

Brief History According to Loren G. Stern, stop and frisk legislation has only recently become a subject of national concern and debate, the police power to detain and question is as old as the common law of England. Detention and questioning were well known too, and strongly enforce under the English common law. Early case holdings and statues empowered the night watch of each town to detain “suspicious nightwalkers” until the morning at which time the watchman would either release the suspect or arrest him if grounds for arrest were discovered. Even private individuals were authorized to detain suspicious night-walkers until they gave a proper account of themselves. In 1839 the English Parliament extended the common law power to detain by authorizing police to search any vessel, carriage, and persons who could be reasonably suspected of possessing stolen goods. A number of state courts of the United States having followed the English common law and in the absence of statutory provisions have upheld the power of police officers to stop, question and frisk suspects under reasonable circumstances. These courts have found that the police have a duty to stop and to question under circumstances “which reasonably require investigation and to frisk as incident to inquiry (Stern, 1967).”
Policy
(Gonzalez, 2012)The Center for Constitutional Rights describes stops and frisk as “the practice by which a police officer initiates a stop of an individual on the street allegedly based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.” Recently, this policy has received a lot of media and community criticism as stops and frisks have reached an all-time high, and incidents of inappropriate and deadly