Stop-and-frisk has removed thousands of guns from the city’s streets — but the NYPD detained millions of innocent New Yorkers to find them.
A Columbia law professor testified Wednesday that just one gun was recovered for every thousand people stopped from 2004 through June 30, 2012.
“The NYPD hit rate is far less than what you would achieve by chance,” Jeffrey Fagan said in Manhattan Federal Court.
Testifying in the federal class-action lawsuit against the city and the NYPD’s controversial tactic, Fagan said his analysis of paperwork from 4.4 million stops found guns were confiscated at a rate of roughly one-tenth of 1 percent, or 5,940 firearms.
Knives and other contraband were nabbed in about 1.5% of stops, taking 66,000 weapons off the street, the professor said.
And 12% of the 4.4 million stops during that time period — roughly 528,000 — led to an actual arrest or a summons, Fagan said.
And the rest were “just let go?” asked Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin.
“Yes, your honor,” Fagan replied.
The professor was testifying on behalf of four New Yorkers who said they were stopped because of their race.
Fagan said his analysis showed blacks and Hispanics were far more likely to be stopped and arrested than whites.
But NYPD spokesman Paul Browne took an opposing view.
“Over the last decade, we have taken 70,000 to 80,000 weapons off of individuals who were stopped for questioning by police,” Browne said. “Seven thousand to 8,000 of those weapons were illegal guns.”
And, he added, nearly 300 guns seized last year had been used in prior crimes.
rgearty@nydailynews.com
