SBA President Defends Stop-and-Frisk, Calls for Better Communication

"Stop-and-Frisk" is an effective policy, but communication between the police and communities needs to improve to come to a better understanding of each other's position, according to Sergeant Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), who spoke to Ditmas Park Patch. 

"The police department needs to have better communication with minority communities, and minority community needs to have better communication with the police department to understand what is the common goal," he said. 

The common goal, Mullins said, of reducing crime and protecting communities has been forgotten by critics of stop, question and frisks.

"[The practice] has been productive over the history of 'Stop-and-Frisk' in reducing crime," Mullins said. "What no one seems to be writing is that police are stopping individuals whose descriptions match complaints."

He noted that the police department's role of stopping someone is based on an incident report from someone in that particular neighborhood, that crime has been reduced across the board in New York City, and the result of that is in correlation with "Stop-and-Frisk."

However, he acknowledged that the procedure can make those most often stopped, specifically black and Latino men, feel as though they're being targeted.

"If I'm a minority living in a community could I feel I'm being targeted? Sure I could," he's said 

"[The police department] needs to understand we're going to make mistakes," Mullins said. "We might stop someone who went to the store to buy a bottle of soda and is running home because he's late for dinner. We're going to stop the wrong individuals."

But in light of that, Mullins said, high-ranking officials within the police department must accept the responsibility of dealing with rising crime without it affecting public appearance.  

"You can't force a situation where people's rights are getting violated," he said.

"This review of stop and frisk…what do we do every time something big happens in this country? 'Let's form a commission.' What's the end result? Things don't change." 

Instead, he said, there is a need to develop a better level of communicating, neighborhood by neighborhood. "Begin in one area, and this could take years, but someone has to plant the seed," Mullins said.

"We, as people from the community and the police department, need to ask what methods could we come to terms with that could help begin to build an avenue for communication to discuss policing and discuss issues?"

"At the end of the day, regardless of color, we all just want a safer life," he said.