NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new Poverty Tracker Report finds that Black New Yorkers are twice as likely as white New Yorkers to report that they or someone in their household was stopped by the police over the course of a year.
The report, derived from Columbia University and Robin Hood’s ongoing longitudinal study of hardship and disadvantage among New Yorkers, finds higher rates of reported stops among New Yorkers living in higher-poverty zip codes than those living in lower-poverty areas. Importantly, the report finds that for white New Yorkers, where one lives affects the chances that they are stopped by police, but for Black and Hispanic New Yorkers, neighborhood poverty level makes little to no difference and race remains the salient factor.
“Despite a commitment to end stop-and-frisk policing in New York City, poor, Black, and Hispanic people remain the most likely targets for police stops in New York City. This report’s findings confirm the frustration so many express about policing and underscores the urgent need for serious and significant police reform,” said Wes Moore, CEO of Robin Hood. “That is why I am working with colleagues from the New York Urban League and the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies to ensure community voices are heard in the Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.”
The Poverty Tracker study examines longitudinal data collected between 2015 and 2019 on the experiences of police stops by respondents among a representative sample of New York City residents. The report is not designed to track official police stops as defined by the NYPD, rather, it sheds light on individual, household, and community perspectives on how the police impact life in New York City.
Key findings of the report include:
- Black New Yorkers living in lower-poverty zip codes are more likely to be stopped than white New Yorkers in higher-poverty zip codes.
- Black New Yorkers and their household’s members are twice as likely as white New Yorkers to be stopped by police.
- While higher-poverty neighborhoods are disproportionately policed, police are more likely to stop Black New Yorkers living in lower-poverty neighborhoods than white or Hispanic New Yorkers living in higher-poverty neighborhoods. In fact, Black New Yorkers are stopped by police in lower-poverty neighborhoods as frequently as in higher-poverty neighborhoods, undermining a long held argument that Black people are more likely to be stopped by police because they live in higher crime areas.
- 18% of Black households reported multiple stops by police over a 36-month period, with 15% of Black households reporting one-stop by the police compared to 14% of Hispanic households reporting multiple stops by police and just 7% of white households reporting multiple stops by police during the same time period.
Robin Hood’s CEO Wes Moore is one of three community leaders participating in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s community engagement process to develop a concrete set of new reforms that are expected to be debated and voted upon by the City Council in early 2021. The community engagement effort is being led by a City Hall team overseen by First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan that includes leadership from the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Office of City Legislative Affairs, the Office to the Counsel of the Mayor, and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. The leadership team also includes senior officials from the NYPD and the City Council. Other community leaders included are Jennifer Jones Austin of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, and Arva Rice of the New York Urban League.
About Robin Hood:
Founded in 1988, Robin Hood finds, fuels, and creates the most impactful and scalable solutions lifting families out of poverty in New York City, with models that can work across the country. This year, Robin Hood will invest nearly $200 million to provide COVID relief, legal services, housing, meals, workforce development training, education programs, and more to families in poverty in New York City. Robin Hood tracks every program with rigorous metrics, and since Robin Hood’s Board of Directors covers all overhead, 100 percent of every donation goes directly to the poverty fight. Learn more at robinhood.org.
Contact: Press@robinhood.org