Record Number of Street Stops Prompts a Protest Civil rights leaders and elected officials gathered in front of City Hall on Tuesday to protest what they said was a record number of street stops last year by the New York Police Department. The police stopped and questioned people 684,330 times in 2011, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which received the data from the City Council as a result of a Freedom of Information Law request. That is the highest number since the Police Department started collecting data on the number of street stops in 2002. It represents a 14 percent increase from 2010 and a roughly 600 percent increase from the first year of the Bloomberg administration. As in previous years, the vast majority of those stopped, 87 percent, were black or Latino. About 9 percent were white. The new numbers seemed likely to increase criticism of the Police Department's use of the controversial stop-and-frisk technique, which detractors have called racially biased. "It's racial profiling, it's racism, and it's having dire consequences in our city," Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, said at Tuesday's news conference, which was organized by the New York Civil Liberties Union. Mr. Stringer accused Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of failing to take responsibility for his administration's policy by simply deferring to the judgment of the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly. "I am today calling on Mayor Bloomberg to step out of the shadow of Commissioner Kelly and lead on this issue," Mr. Stringer said. You cannot hide any more on an issue that is so compelling. In an e-mail, Paul J. Browne, a spokesman for Mr. Kelly, wrote: "Stops save lives. Over the past 10 years, there were 5,430 murders in New York City, compared to 11,058 in the decade before Mayor Bloomberg took office. That's a remarkable achievement - 5,628 lives saved - attributable to proactive policing strategies that included stops. The executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Donna Lieberman, called the new numbers "a scandal." She dismissed the Police Department's argument that the practice has made the public safer, noting that, over the last decade, less than 1 in 650 street stops, or a 15th of 1 percent, had led to an arrest for possession of a firearm. Jumaane D. Williams, a city councilman from Brooklyn, wished Mr. Bloomberg a happy birthday - Tuesday was his 70th - before sharply criticizing him for what he said appeared to be insensitivity toward minorities. "What I'm being told by the mayor's inaction and the police commissioner's inaction is that they don't care about my communities," Mr. Williams said. Mr. Williams said he appreciated a letter sent recently by the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, to Mr. Kelly expressing concerns about the stop-and-frisk policy. But, he added, what was really needed was to hold Council hearings on the issue. Mr. Stringer, who, along with Ms. Quinn, is expected to be a candidate for mayor in 2013, said, "We don't need a letter - we need action."