In New York, Evidence of the Long Arm of the Law

The New York Police Department reaches into New Yorkers' lives nearly 2 million times per year, and it overwhelmingly targets people of color, a new report charges.

NYPD officers were involved in 1.91 million "punitive interactions" in 2014, including writing traffic tickets, carrying out stop-and-frisks and making felony arrests, according to a new analysis by Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP). That total breaks down to 5,694 punitive interactions per day.

Moving violation summonses topped the charts, at 1.06 million last year. Criminal summonses totaled 359,432, and misdemeanor arrests comprised 259,926. (Among the criminal summonses, "the greatest proportion by far, were for open alcohol container," at 116,929, PROP says.)

There were 90,342 felony arrests, and the next highest category for punitive interactions was Transit Adjudication Bureau summonses, at 87,420; those are summonses for violating subway or bus rules, including when an individual asks for someone to swipe him or her into the subway.

PROP obtained data for the report from the NYPD and other government agencies, the organization says.

"The high number of punitive interactions conducted by the NYPD expose the Department's continuing practice of targeting New Yorkers of color," the report alleges.

"By all accounts and reckonings, 80 to 95 percent of these punitive interactions take place not between the NYPD and the city's full population of 8.4 million people," the report continues, "but between the NYPD and African-Americans and Latinos living in the city between the ages of 15 and 59, roughly 2.6 million people."

Some 94.4 percent of juvenile arrests were of African-American or Latino youths. And some 87.5 percent of stop-and-frisks were of persons of color, PROP maintains.

Allegations that NYPD practices overwhelmingly target people of color—which are supported by statistics, including Newsweek's own data analyses—have come under intense scrutiny following the death of Eric Garner on July 17, 2014. Garner, an African-American who was not carrying a weapon, died at the hands of the NYPD—after officers approached him on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes.

Many of the arrests stem from the "Broken Windows" policing approach favored by Commissioner Bill Bratton. This policing philosophy stems from the belief that strict enforcement against low-level offenders—such as those carrying open containers of alcohol or placing their feet on subway seats—contributes to an overall decline in crime. Critics of Broken Windows counter its efficacy in fighting crime is questionable—and they say the practice antagonizes minority communities.

"Bratton has been spinning that the new NYPD is less intrusive, less punitive, especially in regards to its interactions with people of color," says PROP's director, Robert Gangi. "These numbers tell a different story."

"It refutes his claim and makes the point—very dramatically—that the NYPD continues to in fact be at war with communities of color and to inflict daily, weekly, monthly hardships on the people that live in those communities," he adds.

In addition to the human cost, Gangi maintains, the Broken Windows approach puts a significant financial strain on New York City.

In 2014, misdemeanor arrests cost New York City $454.9 million, PROP estimates. That breaks down to $1.25 million per day for the 259,926 misdemeanor arrests in 2014. (Based on other studies' approximations, PROP estimates that each misdemeanor collar costs $1,750.)

As Newsweek reported in February, minorities are subject to approximately 86 percent of New York City's misdemeanor arrests.

The NYPD had not commented by the time of publication.