The stop-question-and-frisk program, or stop-and-frisk, in New York City, is a practice of the New York City Police Department in which police officers stop and question a pedestrian, then frisk them for weapons and other contraband; this is what is known in other places in the United States as the Terry stop. The rules for stop, question, and frisk are found in the state's criminal procedure law section 140.50, and are based on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Terry v. Ohio.[1][2] About 685,724 people were stopped in 2011.[1][3][4] However, the number of stops has been reduced dramatically since then, to 22,939 in 2015.[3]

The vast majority of those stopped were African-American or Latino.[1][3][4] According to a 2007 study, this disparity persists even after controlling for "precinct variability and race-specific estimates of crime participation".[5] Over half were aged 14-24. [3] In 2011 police stopped 46,784 women, frisking nearly 16,000. While women represented only 6.9% of stops in 2011, guns were found in only 59 cases; but there were 3,993 arrests of women. Guns were discovered on 0.12% and 0.13% of women and men respectively. [6]