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NYPD head says African-Americans not stopped and frisked enough

NEW YORK, May 2 (UPI) -- In defense of New York City's stop-and-frisk policy, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says 75 percent of violent crimes are committed by African-Americans.

In a televised interview Wednesday, Kelly said the controversial police tactic, which many say disproportionately targets blacks and Latinos, may not be used enough, the New York Daily News reported.

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"About 70 percent to 75 percent of the people described as committing violent crimes -- assault, robbery, shootings, grand larceny -- are described as being African-American," Kelly told ABC's "Nightline." "The percentage of people who are stopped is 53 percent African American. So really, African-Americans are being under-stopped in relation to the percentage of people being described as being the perpetrators of violent crime."

Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn continued to support a bill that would create an inspector general to oversee the NYPD, the New York Post reported.

Quinn, a mayoral candidate, said Wednesday her efforts would continue to slash the number of stop-and-frisks conducted by police officers, which were at an all-time high in 2011 with 684,000 and dropped to 525,000 in 2012.

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"The [nearly] 700,000 number, which was at our height, it has gone down because of the intervention of my office and the council," Quinn said. "That's a number that is too high and clearly shows that many of those stops could not have been happening in a constitutionally sound way."

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