Q&A on the News

Q: I see murders in Chicago have topped 800. Does the city have a stopand-frisk policy? Did it help New York? — Al Cooper, Atlanta

A: Chicago made changes to its stop-and-frisk policy this year.

The Chicago Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois agreed in August 2015 to “reform the practice of investigatory street stops known as ‘stop and frisks,’ ” the state’s ACLU website states.

Chicago police now must fill out more detailed reports — called investigatory stop reports — for every stop and frisk, instead of the brief contact cards of the past.

They also must issue receipts to those who are stopped.

Stop and frisks dropped 84.1 percent from January to June 2016, compared to the same timeframe in 2015, WBEZ 91.5 Chicago reported in July.

“There were more than 250,000 stops that did not lead to an arrest,” in the summer of 2014, according to an ACLU report released last year.

There were about 770 murders in Chicago in 2016 (through Dec. 27), compared to 492 in 2015, according to the Chicago Tribune.

New York City’s murder rate has dropped 32 percent since 2011 and the city began to cut back stop and frisk in 2012, The New York Times reported in September.

There were 352 homicides in 2015, a decrease from 515 in 2011, the paper reported.

“The amount of stopand-frisk activity since its height in 2011 is down 97 percent,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told the media in October.

Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column; Katie Tiller contributed. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).