As a Princeton University undergraduate, Alisa Tiwari '14 evaluated New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk program for her senior thesis. With a background in domestic policy, African-American studies, and urban studies, and drawing on her coursework in politics, policy analysis, and statistics, she spent countless hours analyzing police data, reviewing the relevant legal issues, and considering the perspectives of both officers and community members to assess the efficacy, constitutionality, and broader societal impacts of the practice. Her thesis, “Watch Where You Walk: An Evaluation of Stop and Frisk in New York City," earned her the J. Welles Henderson '43 Prize in Legal Studies from Princeton’s Program in Law and Public Affairs.

Being accepted into the 2014 cohort of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI), based within the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, provided Tiwari the opportunity to gain real-world experience in the field of law enforcement reform. Full story here.