Stop and Frisk: Some Outstanding Questions

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

In the U.S. context, controversies and concerns continue about police investigatory stop practices, also known as SQF (stop query and frisk) or more simply stop and frisk. This panel considers theory, policy and practice aspects of three outstanding questions in this area. The first paper asks if officers adjust their stop strategies based on past results with “productive” and “non-productive” stops. The second paper revisits the external benchmarking problem for stop rates and describes the challenges of generating conceptually appropriate and empirically workable ethnoracial specific stop rates. The third paper turns to post-stop outcomes like frisk or search hit rates. It describes the conceptual and empirical importance of separating dynamics linked to selection for stop, selection for frisk or search, and outcome of search or frisk. The discussant has just published a volume on stop and frisk.

Sub Unit

• Area VIII. Policing / 45. Police Strategies, Interventions and Evaluations

Division of Special Interest

• Divisions of Special Interest / Division of Policing

Individual Presentations

• Trial or Error? Police Updating in Investigative Stops - Jeffrey Fagan, Columbia University

• The Ecology of Ethnorcial Specific Stops: Revisiting the Denominator Question in Light of Realistic Alernatives - Lallen T. Johnson, Drexel University

• Estimating Ethnoracial Impacts for Outcomes of Post-Stop Decisions - Ralph B Taylor, Temple University

Chair

• Ralph B Taylor, Temple University

Discussant

• Michael White, Arizona State University