Stop and frisk works, but not for its stated goal It's like torture, it doesn't work great to get intels However it does wonders at terrorizing a population. That's why totalitarian regimes mostly rely on it, to keep people in line Well it's the same for stop and frisk, you create psychological pressure in a given area on a particular segment of the population. If they go over there they know they'll get a stop and frisk at every turn