Stop And Frisk Math Problems For The New Common Core Math Tests

Read the following math conundrum and respond with the correct answer.  Show your work.

First, read the following piece of information text:

The NYPD's former top-ranked uniformed officer admitted Tuesday that the number of stop-and-frisks jumped by an astounding 700% on his watch.

But retired Chief of Department Joseph Esposito also said there was a massive drop in crime during the same time period.

“Yes it is,” said Esposito, when asked if it was true that the number of these controversial stops leaped from 97,000 in 2002 to 685,000 in 2011.

Then Esposito, after a long pause, added: “As is the 40% drop in crime during the same time. And the 80% decline in crime in the last 20 years.”

Here's your problem, both Part A and Part B:

Part A: Stop and frisks are up 700% over the last 11 years. 

Crime is down 40% over the last ten years, down 80% over the last twenty.

Let's assume these stats aren't funky (a precarious assumption, given the Bloomberg administration's history of funkifying the data.)

The first 9 years before the sharp increase in stop and frisks, crime fell, according to the NYPD data by 40%.

Then the NYPD, under P.W. Botha, er, Michael Bloomberg, instituted the city's "Stop and frisk every black and Latino male" policy.

Over the next 11 years, crime, according to the NYPD data, fell another 40%.

That's the same amount it fell before they instituted the policy.

Is it possible that crime could have fallen by the same amount without the stop and frisks going up 700%?

After all, crime "fell" by 40% pre-stop and frisk.

Part B: Only about 2.6% end in arrests, and even then, only about 0.02% of those arrests are because the person searched was found to have a weapon.  The overwhelming majority of those arrests stem from drug possession, usually low level marijuana possession.

Now if that's the kind of "crime" Bloomberg and Kelly are claiming they're stopping with the policy, that might be at least honest.

But it's not.  They claim they're stopping gun violence and gun possession.

Except that they're not. 

0.02% of stop and frisks end with an arrest because of weapons possession.

99.08% do not.

Explain exactly how this policy is effective.