The mayor ‘misspoke’ on frisk biz

MAYOR DE BLASIO exaggerated the effectiveness of his reforms of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program in an address to a predominantly black audience.

Speaking in prepared remarks to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Wednesday, de Blasio compared his application of the controversial crime-fighting tactic to the way it was done under Michael Bloomberg.

Under Bloomberg, he said, “There were over 700,000 stops-and-frisks of people in this city, the vast majority of whom were young men of color, the vast majority of whom were innocent in every way shape and form.”

He then touted what he said was his record on use of the tactic. “That number is 40,000 and the people being stopped are people who have done something wrong,” de Blasio said. In 2014 — his first year as mayor — the NYPD made 46,235 stops, according to NYPD records. Only 18% of those resulted in arrests.

In 2011 — the year that saw the highest amount of recorded stops under Bloomberg — 12% of the 685,724 stops recorded led to arrests.

Under de Blasio, 55% of those stopped were African-American and 29% were Latinos — virtually the same as every year since 2003.

A spokesman for the mayor said he “misspoke.”

But Monifa Bandele of Communities United for Police Reform said, “Our city’s top public official is falsely criminalizing tens of thousands of New Yorkers — the majority of whom are black or Latino — who were stopped by police last year and found to be doing nothing wrong.”