<P> 12,404 stops were made in 2016 . The stop - and - frisk program has previously taken place on a much wider scale . Between 2003 and 2013, over 100,000 stops were made per year, with 685,724 people being stopped at the height of the program in 2011 . The program became the subject of a racial profiling controversy . The vast majority, 90% in 2017, of those stopped were African - American or Latino, most of whom were aged 14--24 . Furthermore, 70% of all those stopped were later found to be innocent . The racial disparity persists even after controlling for precinct variability and race - specific estimates of crime participation . Research suggests that stop - and - frisk had few effects, if any, on crime in New York City . </P> <P> The legal power for the police to stop and frisk members of the public comes from English law . Common law states that, without legislative changes, a police officer has the power to stop, question, and frisk suspects given reasonable circumstances . Based on a standard that holds less than probable cause, the power is granted upon the standard of reasonable suspicion . It is a question of circumstances of each individual case that determines whether reasonable detention and investigation is validated . </P> <P> The United States Supreme Court made an important ruling on the use of stop - and - frisk in the 1968 case Terry v. Ohio, hence why the stops are also referred to as Terry stops . While frisks were arguably illegal, until then, a police officer could search only someone who had been arrested, unless a search warrant had been obtained . In the cases of Terry v. Ohio, Sibron v. New York, and Peters v. New York, the Supreme Court granted limited approval in 1968 to frisks conducted by officers lacking probable cause for an arrest in order to search for weapons if the officer believes the subject to be dangerous . The Court's decision made suspicion of danger to an officer grounds for a "reasonable search ." </P> <P> In the early 1980s, if a police officer had reasonable suspicion of a possible crime, he or she had the authority to stop someone and ask questions . If, based on the subject's answers, the suspicion level did not escalate to probable cause for an arrest, the person would be released immediately . That was only a "stop - and - question". The "frisk" part of the equation did not come into play except on two cases: if possession of a weapon was suspected, or reasonable suspicion of a possible crime escalated to probable cause to arrest for an actual crime based on facts developed after the initial stop - and - question . That all changed in the 1990s, when CompStat was developed under then - Police Commissioner William Bratton . High - ranking police officials widely incorporated the "stop, question and frisk". </P>

When was the stop and frisk policy started