A practice in New York City used stop and frisk as a way to fight crime. It backfired in court there according to Gilbert "It was a real problem because they targeted mostly minorities and the crime rate didn't go down and the people of New York were not any safer." The practice is still the law of the land, but there are some cases where the use of stop and frisk has been deemed excessive. A U.S. District Court judge ruled the practice unconstitutional in NYC in an August 2013 ruling after it was found that officers were routinely stopping and frisking people with no belief that crime was imminent.