The police department’s most controversial crime prevention strategies are coming under increased scrutiny with politicians debating their merit and the court system ruling on their constitutionality.

In the meantime, the question remains: Are tactics like stop and frisk and Operation Clean Halls “putting a distance between police and communities?”

That was a question addressed at “Crime and the Numbers Game,” a lecture and discussion held at the Monroe College King Graduate School for Urban Studies and Applied Research. Eli B. Silverman, an emeritus professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, led the discussion to an audience packed with students, professors and community members.

Silverman took an in-depth look inside the NYPD’s manipulation of crime data, the surge of stop and frisk encounters, the increased use of police force in the Bronx and the crucial need for NYPD reforms.

“We have a surge of stop and frisk in the city,” said Silverman. “What started when Bloomberg came in with less than 100,000 stops in a year is now about 700,000 [per year].”

The NYPD stopped close to 700,000 people on the street last year. Nearly 87 percent were black or Hispanic and only about 10 percent were arrested, many for petty crimes.

“It’s not only significant that there are over 700,000 stops but that this proportion amount, as many of you know, are black and Latinos,” said Silverman.

Silverman also addressed a concern over two Bronx precincts and their high use of force.

“Two of the precincts in the Bronx, the 46th and the 44th are two of the top for the use-of-force,” said Silverman, about two other high-crime precincts that stretch from south of Fordham Road to Yankee Stadium on the west side of the borough. “The 44th Precinct led the city in the previous six years in the use of force — 54 percent of all stops were use-of-force which is more than double the city’s average of 23 percent. The 46th Precinct used forced with 58 percent of stops last year, the highest of all 76 precincts in the city.”

Silverman said there is an issue presented with these high percentages and efforts must be made to find out, “what’s going on.”

The lecture came in the wake of a City Council hearing on the Community Safety Act, a legislative package aimed to help end discriminatory policing, held just hours before.

The Act aims to protect against discriminatory profiling and unlawful searches. It would require NYPD officers to identify themselves and explain their actions before performing a stop and frisk. It would also establish an Inspector General for the NYPD to provide independent oversight and increase penalties for abusive policing.

“New Yorkers stand in support of the Community Safety Act because it represents the first meaningful reform in a generation of the NYPD’s approach to policing historically disenfranchised communities,” said the bill’s sponsor, Brooklyn Council Member Jumaane Williams, during the hearing. “This legislation is a crucial step we must take toward achieving better policing and safer streets for all, a goal we collectively share. By tackling discrimination and instituting true accountability, we will empower ‘New York’s Finest’ to focus their energies on proven strategies that help our city root out crime and violence in every corner.”

The Community Safety Act isn’t the only course of action being taken against the NYPD’s controversial policing. A federal lawsuit accusing the NYPD of making an abundance of unmerited arrests in “Operation Clean Halls” buildings is currently under way. Many of the city’s apartment buildings and all of the public housing projects fall under the Clean Halls program. It allows police officers to stop anyone in the building and ask for identification. Civil rights groups say the program leads to unwarranted arrests of residents who commit the “crime” of walking around without their identification.

In response to the suit, the Bronx District Attorney office recently announced that it will no longer prosecute any “trespassers” arrested for Clean Halls-related stops unless the arresting officer submits to an interview.

“For the first time there’s an effort to deter (amount of wrongful stops and arrest) with the series of bills going on right now,” said Silverman in regard to the Community Safety Act.

Tivona Brown, a student at Monroe College and attendee at the lecture, appreciated Silverman’s insight in the controversial stop and frisk police procedure.

“Stop and frisk is something we really need to address,” said Brown. “We can’t walk around without being targeted or considered a suspect.”