No Place on the Corner: The Costs of Aggressive Policing

In the early 2000’s, New York City began to experience a surge in “stop and frisk”—a police tactic that became a distinctive feature of the New York Police Department. Young black and Latino men disproportionately became the focus of this approach, which targets residents of select neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs.

The southwest Bronx became “ground zero” for many of these stops. Here, the public parks, streets, and corners once relied on to socialize and meet with friends are no longer available to many young members of the community. Even the quintessentially “New York” act of sitting on one’s own stoop has become risky.  

In 2011, the year “stops” would reach its highest point, I set out to research the effects of this police strategy on the everyday lives of residents in the southwest Bronx.  In particular, I sought to ethnographically explore how the lives of poor and working-class families have been reshaped by aggressive policing tactics: young people caught between neighborhood violence and persistent police contact, and the mothers and fathers of the neighborhood, who are often forced to shoulder the burden of these police encounters.

Among other things, my findings suggest a substantial erosion of faith in local and state institutions.  Moreover, these aggressive policing tactics discourage the formation of social ties in the neighborhood—the very networks often needed to get ahead.    

This research culminated in a book set to be released later this year entitled, No Place on the Corner: The Costs of Aggressive Policing (NYU Press).