Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg consistently credited his administration’s controversial stop-and-frisk program as essential to cutting crime, but declines in felonies both before and after his expansion of the program indicate no consistent correlation between the two.
A Washington Post analysis of crime patterns and other academic research found that major felonies declined during Bloomberg’s three terms from 2002 through 2013, but the reduction did not correspond to the increase in stops by police.
Crime has continued to fall since a federal judge deemed the practice an unconstitutional violation of civil rights in 2013. The disconnect suggests that an increase or decrease in crime happened largely for reasons independent of the aggressive expansion of the policy. Read more.