We just returned last night from a weekend trip to NYC. We were there from Friday until Monday and of course, took public transportation including numerous ferries, buses and of course the subway. There were police officers stationed at every entrance to the subway as well as on all the different ferries that we took. There were 4 of us in our group. One of our friends was stopped and searched, a white male of about 27 yrs old. He was the only one of us carrying a backpack. An officer did ask to look into my purse on one of the ferries.
I saw people of all nationalities and ages being searched while we were there for the long weekend. The only common denominator was that they were carrying a bag of some sort, a backpack, a large shopping bag, a laundry bag/cart.