Delaware County trying "stop and frisk"

Lisa Thomas Laury
ABC 6
Friday June 22, 2007

One police department in Delaware County is now implementing a controversial police procedure called Stop and Frisk.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it legal nearly 40 years ago, and the Upper Darby Police department, after seeing a tremendous increase in drug trafficking, has decided to give it a try.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said "stop and frisk" is working because he is operating it within the confines of the constitution and his officers are well disciplined.

"It's a matter of who you pick, how well you train them, and monitoring and performance," explained Chitwood.

Action News rode with the Tactical Narcotics Team in Upper Darby on several nights.

"Lots of times the drug dealer will hang in the doorways. When they see a police car coming, they'll run inside," said one officer.

There are many other times officers will "stop and frisk" someone who they think looks suspicious in an effort to prevent a crime.

Unlike a full search, in a frisk the officer pats down the suspect's outer clothing. If he feels what seems to be drugs or a weapon, he may then reach inside. If nothing is felt, the person is released.

Critics argue that creates an environment of fear.

"When you stop people whether or not they are doing anything wrong, nobody is going to feel safe from police," said ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper.

She said no one should be targeted because of where he or she lives or who he or she is.

"You shouldn't be treated different or put under suspicion just because you live in a high crime neighborhood or just because you're an ethnic minority," she said.

University of Pennsylvania professor and criminologist Lawrence Sherman, who helped develop stop and frisk, said police can patrol those areas without being racially selective.

"This is not about what was done in the bad ole days of the Philadelphia Police Department, where police might go into entire neighborhoods and tell everybody on the street corner to get up against the wall and they were frisked. That's illegal," Sherman explained.

But Roper said efforts should be focused on improving neighborhoods.

"Why don't we have stop-and-counsel? Why don't we have stop-and-help? Why don't we have stop-and-offer a job?" she said.

Still, Dr. Sherman said we only have to look to the nearest airport to see how effective "stop and frisk" can be.

"We're all getting stopped and frisked every time we get on an airplane, and the issue is not the stopping or the frisking or taking off out shoes," he said. "We're all gonna agree with it because its under strict legislation and we have a level of trust."

The idea of stop and frisk was a key issue during the Democratic primary for mayor in Philadelphia.

Michael Nutter wants to implement the tactic in the Philadelphia Police Department if he becomes mayor.

"Everyone has a civil right not to be shot," said Nutter. "Our children, working people, our senior citizens have a right to be in their homes and feel safe and secure."

It's important to mention that the policy that Nutter is proposing involves a concentration on police officer sensitivity.

In fact, he refers to it as "Stop, Ask and Frisk." Nutter and Professor Sherman said that research shows that the more polite officers are when they stop someone, the less aggressive and the more fair they will appear. Residents are then more likely to obey the law in the future.