NYPD further curbs stop-and-frisk — even after strategy leads to murder suspect

The New York Police Department agreed Thursday to further cut back stop-and-frisk tactics – even as city investigators were using data gleaned from the practice to arrest the man now accused in a vicious sexual assault and murder.

The discovery of 30-year-old Karina Vetrano’s body in a Queens park in August made national headlines as authorities had very little information identifying her killer. But The New York Daily News reported it was a review of stop-and-frisk reports from the area near the crime scene that helped cops zero in on 20-year-old Chanel Lewis – who was arrested Saturday and charged with second-degree murder.

“To the extent that it’s not used as a national tactic, we all lose,” former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told Fox News. “It’s helpful in this case and that’s obviously a good thing, and quite frankly that should be standard practice. You look through all records.”

But the stop-and-frisk policy has come under attack nationally during the past several years, with New York City leading the charge to snuff it out. Thursday’s agreement – which curtailed stop-and-frisk in private apartment buildings – helped end a series of lawsuits against the NYPD, which has been the poster child for stop-and-frisk since a federal judge in 2013 ruled that one aspect of the policy was unconstitutional.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in a November speech said he would ignore a hypothetical order to be more aggressive in carrying out the tactic.

“If the Justice Department orders local police to resume stop-and-frisk, we will not comply,” de Blasio said.

But without old stop-and-frisk reports placing Lewis in the vicinity of Vetrano’s death, police might not have been able to amass enough evidence to eventually take him into custody. He reportedly confessed to the crime.

More From FoxNews: