Former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg got attacked on the debate stage last week on several issues, including his record on the stop-and-frisk police policy.
Bloomberg said too many people were stopped and he apologized just before announcing his run for the White House. He also claimed that when he discovered it was happening too often, it was cut by 95 percent.
PolitiFact found that in 2013 a federal judge ruled that the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk tactics violated the constitutional rights of minorities in the city.
So is it true that stop and frisks dropped 95 percent during Bloomberg’s tenure? His campaign said his claim relied on data for the first quarter of 2012 and the last quarter of 2013.
PolitiFact found the NYPD recorded 203,500 stops from January to March 2012, compared with approximately 12,500 stops from October to December 2013. That's close to a 95 percent drop.
PolitiFact points out that while there was ultimately a sharp decline, Bloomberg presided over a sharp increase in stop and frisks for most of his time as mayor.
Their rating: half true.
