More than 238,000 people were searched by police in NSW last financial year, with documents revealing a quota system is in place for different regions.

Residents in Sydney's CBD and Liverpool in the southwest were subject to the most NSW Police searches, according to the data revealed under freedom of information laws.

The figures, obtained by NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge, show individual police area commands have targets for personal searches and move-on orders.

Personal searches include both standard "frisk" searches and strip-searches.

The data shows police NSW Police searched 238,923 people in 2018/19, after aiming for 241,632 across the state.

Mr Shoebridge said it was "dreadful" searches were being performed simply to meet quotas.

"Personal searches can be traumatising and are only meant to be undertaken when police are satisfied they are necessary," he said in a statement on Thursday.

Targets were highest for Sydney central police command which includes the eastern suburbs, Kings Cross, Sutherland Shire and Sydney's CBD.

It had a quota of 61,396 searches in 2017/18 and 68,752 in 2018/19.

Sydney's southwest - which includes Auburn, Campbelltown and Liverpool - had the second-highest search quota with a target of 57,804 in 2017/18 and 57,487 the following year.

The highest number of searches performed were in those two police commands with people in Sydney central subject to 66,124 searches in 2018/19 while 62,152 searches were performed in the southwest.

Within those areas, more than 9300 searches were performed in Sydney city alone and 9119 people in Liverpool in the southwest were searched in 2018/19.

"This isn't about cracking down on organised crime, it's about the micro abuse of police power being repeated hundreds of times a day in interactions with ordinary people," Mr Shoebridge said.

"We need the premier and police minister to step up and direct NSW Police to cease issuing quotas for the use of these discretionary police powers."

A NSW Police spokesman said every police area command is accountable for a range of performance measures including proactive policing.

"Any time a police officer executes their search powers, they must hold a reasonable suspicion as required by LEPRA (Law Enforcement Powers and Responsibilities Act)," the spokesman said in a statement to AAP on Thursday.

"A search cannot be conducted if this criteria is not met."

The spokesman added that proactive police strategies including searches have been proven to "significantly" drive down crime.

The NSW police minister has been contacted for comment.

AAP