New Yorkers overwhelmingly want the NYPD to ask for people’s IDs during their routine patrols of the hallways and stairwells in city housing projects, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Thursday.
Residents are 2-1 in favor of cops engaging the people they find in the public spaces in NYCHA buildings — asking for their identification and reason for being there — rather than merely patrolling without stopping and questioning anyone, the poll shows.
The policy of ID-checks during routine sweeps in projects buildings was scaled back when “stop and frisk” first came under legal attack.
Civil rights groups have charged in an ongoing federal lawsuit that “vertical patrols,” in which cops walk the stairwells of housing projects and grill those they find there, are “intentionally discriminatory and race based.”
But New Yorkers’ tastes are now swinging back toward more aggressive policing in NYCHA buildings — and outrage over this month’s random knife attack of two children in a Brooklyn housing project elevator may explain that, the pollsters said.
Prince Joshua “P.J.” Avitto, 6, died in the June 1 attack; his playmate, Mikayla Capers, 7, spent 10 days in the hospital before her release Wednesday.
“We can’t ignore the likely impact of the highly-publicized murder of a child in a housing project elevator, but New Yorkers, black, white and Hispanic, say 2-1 that the police should resume patrols and ID checks in project hallways,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Maurice Carroll.
“In this case, at least in this emotional time, the civil liberties spokespeople are out of touch with the people they speak for,” Carroll added. “Black voters agree with these spokespeople in their opposition to stop and frisk, but almost two-thirds of black voters want the police back in the public housing projects, checking people in the hallways.”
Poll-takers were asked, “Do you think the police should or should not restore the program where they patrolled public housing projects and asked people in the hallways for ID?”
ID-checks were most popular among the city’s women and Republicans.
Men favored ID-checks by a margin of 55-37 percent; and women by a margin of 61-28 percent. Republicans were 80-14 percent in favor of the policy. Democrats were 76-17 percent in favor, and Independents were 73-19 percent in favor.
But the policy had universal appeal among the city’s racial and ethnic groups.
White poll-takers favored ID-checks 58-28; Hispanics by 62-34 percent, and blacks by 62-32.
The poll also found that New Yorkers support 75 -18 percent a proposal to hire 1,000 additional police officers.
Voters also gave a 57-13 percent approval margin to Police Commissioner William Bratton, But only 59 percent of voters approve of the NYPD overall.