DETROIT — The controversial ‘stop and frisk’ policy, which was originally used by the New York Police Department, will now be coming to Detroit. 

The department announced on Monday that it will begin implementing that method on traffic cops, which involves the random stopping and patting down of suspicious individuals. According to Detroit Police Chief James Craig, some officers have already been using that method for years now.

News of new tactics being used in Detroit comes days after a federal judge in New York said that the NYPD exhibited racial bias in conducting its ‘stop and frisk’ pat-downs. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said the policy unfairly targets minorities and ordered for reform and an independent monitor to oversee the NYPD’s use of the tactic. City officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, decried the decision and filed an appeal on Friday.

But in a city like Detroit, where the majority of the population is African American to begin with, it’s difficult to address whether any racial bias would take place at all. The police department is going to be dealing with a majority of African American arrests, with or without the policy.

“Based on reasonable suspicion, the Detroit Police Department is already a ‘stop and frisk’ policing agency. Detroit’s population is mostly African American, so it stands to reason that a high number of African Americans will be stopped, based on reasonable suspicion. This is not racial profiling, just officers doing good constitutional police work,” Detroit Assistant Chief Erik Ewing told FOX 2 News.

According to reports, Detroit traffic officers are presently working with the Manhattan Institute and Bratton Group, the same consultants that helped implement ‘stop and frisk’ in New York City, on an expansion of Detroit’s program to include more aggressive searches resulting from traffic stops.

But the practice of ‘stop and frisk’ won’t go without some challenges in Detroit. Ron Scott, the founder of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality said that the procedure is not welcomed in the City.

“We don’t intend to allow it to happen, even though it may be happening in some form,” Scott says.

Some have criticized the procedure for possibly being a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which requires that the police have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed, before stopping a suspect. If the police reasonably suspect the person is armed and dangerous, then they may conduct a frisk; a quick pat-down of the person’s outer clothing.

Supporters for the policy in New York believe it is the proactive reason why the City is now seeing record lows of homicides and shootings. Perhaps that could make a positive impact in Detroit, which in the last week alone, recorded 53 shootings, possibly a record high. Weekends in particular tend to be very violent in the City. The first two weekends in August were both documented with over 30 incidents of shootings.