Program Goals/Target Sites
Stop, Question, and Frisk (SQF) is a policing strategy intended to intervene and control crime in concentrated crime hot spots in New York City. The approach has been applied across the five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The strategy is implemented across microgeographic or very small hot spot areas in the city, such as specific street segments or particular intersections.
Program Components
SQF is used by officers during their normal patrol duties when they have a reasonable suspicion that an individual is in the process of committing a crime or is about to commit a crime. Under these conditions, officers may detain the person to question and perform a frisk to determine whether the person is in possession of any illegal items such as drugs or weapons. The approach as applied in New York City was part of a hot spots policing strategy that focused on small geographic areas where crime was concentrated (Weisburd, Telep, and Lawton 2014; Braga, Papachristos, and Hureau 2014).
Program Theory
SQF is grounded in deterrence theory. As the certainty of detection or apprehension for wrongdoing is perceived to increase, the incidence of such behavior should decrease. Thus, by increasing police presence in concentrated crime hot spots, police act as sentinels whose presence should discourage offending (Weisburd et al. 2015).
Additional Information
The implementation of SQF in New York City was met with controversy, with opponents arguing that the approach targeted young minorities and specific neighborhoods unfairly (see Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss, 2007; Ridgeway, 2007; Stoud, Fine, and Fox, 2011). This led to a federal court case regarding the constitutionality of SQF. As Weisburd (2015) explained, “In Floyd v. City of New York (2013), the U.S. Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York ruled that SQFs as carried out in NYC were unconstitutional and appointed a special monitor to institute substantive reforms” (p.32).