Stop and Frisk
| Prepare: Read Chapters 8 and 9 in the course text and review the following resource Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al(Links to an external site.) | ||
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Reflect: As you learned in this week’s readings, many constitutional scholars consider the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures as one of the most basic freedoms that the Bill of Rights clearly protects. This central freedom supports and protects other essential freedoms, like free speech, press, assembly, and religion. Recently, this core freedom has become a very controversial debate topic as large American cities, like New York City, have instituted police procedures described as “stop and frisk.” In these cities, when a police officer has reason to believe that a person is armed there is a set protocols for police officers that they must accomplish in order to determine if the suspected individual is a threat to public safety. For example, officers can make stops based on suspicious activities and frisk individuals for weapons. Courts have found this to be within the boundaries of the Fourth Amendment until just recently. | |
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Write: In your initial post of at least 300 words, utilize the Constitution, established case law, and scholarly sources to complete the following assignments:
Provide real-world examples to support your answers. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. |
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Stop and Frisk
In the past few years, there have been many debates among people within the public realm over unreasonable searches that are conducted by law enforcement officers. Many people suggest that such activities need to be prohibited whereas others support them. An argument that supports ‘stop and frisk’ is that it acts as a deterrent. Individuals who may want to carry weapons may fear that they may be stopped and frisked and thereby many people do not carry weapons due to this fear. If the practice was prohibited, many people would start to carry weapons and this could threaten public safety.
(337 words)