'To Corral and Control': Stop, Frisk, and the Geography of Freedom

Abstract

This article revisits the emergence of stop and frisk law in the 1960s to make three points. One, the impetus for formalizing police stops arose midst confusion generated by Mapp v. Ohio, the landmark Warren Court opinion incorporating the exclusionary rule to the states. Two, police over-reactions to Mapp intersected with fears of urban riots, leading to a formalization of stop and frisk rules that aimed at better containing inner-city minority populations. Three, the heightened control of urban streets coupled with the heightened protection of the private home bore geographic implications, interiorizing liberty in ways that perpetuated a national narrative of expanding freedoms even as it contributed to black incarceration.

Keywords: criminal procedure, race, rights, Warren Court, riots, protest, demonstration, Epton, Mapp v. Ohio