Governor forces NYPD to delete stop-and-frisk data

Published: Saturday, July 17, 2010, 12:24 AM     Updated: Saturday, July 17, 2010,

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. David Paterson yesterday struck down a controversial NYPD stop-and-frisk database -- the very tool that police say helped them solve a savage crime in Port Richmond last spring.

The governor wielded his pen to eliminate the massive database of putative criminals, which included everyone whom police stopped on Staten Island and in the other boroughs, questioned, and sent on their way.

Paterson derided the former practice as "not a policy for a democracy."

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) hailed the new law.

"To rescind the requirement would not hurt crime-prevention, but it would protect the civil liberties of those who have done nothing wrong," she said. "There is no reason to collect the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of people who were randomly in an area."