NYPD Deputy Inspector Says He Didn't Encourage Profiling For 'Stop-And-Frisk'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- NYPD Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack said Monday that he did not tell his officers to stop only blacks and Hispanics, and did not set quotas.
McCormack said he did not wrongly punish an officer under his command, Pedro Serrano, for not making enough arrests. McCormack testified Monday in a federal civil rights challenge to the police practice known as stop, question and frisk.
Serrano used to work in the 40th precinct in the Bronx. He secretly recorded a heated exchange with McCormack and other officials earlier this year during an appeal of his performance evaluation. He says he believes McCormack punished him for not making enough arrests and says he told him to stop minorities.
McCormack said he "absolutely never" told officers to make race-based stops.
A recording played in a Federal District Court in Manhattan in March featured a commanding officer instructing a patrol officer to stop the "right people, at the right time", the New York Times reported.
The commanding officer on the recording was Deputy Inspector McCormack, he was recorded by Serrano saying that the people causing the most problems should be stopped on the street, according to the Times.
Stop-and-frisk has been criticized, because since 2002 85 percent of those stopped were either black or Hispanic and most of them were released without being charged.
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