The NYPD released its response to the “quality-of-life policing is bad” report issued by the NYC Dept of Investigation. Guess what? Quality-of-life policing is good! (The original report, the one this responds to, is titled, and I’m not joking: “The New York City Department Of Investigation’s Office Of The Inspector General For The New York City Police Department Releases A…
Update: The links have changed (oops!) since these were first published. Here are links to all my August 2016 posts on the DOJ report on the BPD. 1 https://copinthehood.com/initial-thoughts-on-doj-report-on-2/ 2 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-1-2/ 3 https://copinthehood.com/the-dojs-war-on-broken-window-2/ 4 https://copinthehood.com/cant-you-take-joke-2/ 5 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-2-n-word-2/ 6 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-3-that-damn-kid-on-2/ 7 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-4-on-diggs-dig-2/ 8 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-1-2/ 9 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-2-actual-department-is-2/ 10 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-3-actual-department-is-2/ 11 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-4-actual-department-is-2/ This flew in over the transom: As someone who also works…
One point of Broken Windows policing is that it requires police discretion and intelligence. Yes, rules are important so police act without the bounds of the law, but just because something is against the rules doesn’t mean it’s a Broken Window worthy of police attention. Similarly, just because something is a Broken Window wouldn’t necessary mean it’s against the law.…
There’s a report out by the newfangled NYC Department of Investigation Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD (you know, OIG-NYPD, for short): “An Analysis of Quality of Life Summonses, Quality of Life Misdemeanor Arrests, and Felony Crime in New York City, 2010-2015.” The report is surprisingly good, in terms of data analysis and presentation. (I love, for instance,…
Here’s how Broken Windows works in real life. A “subway swiper” — a minor crime — causes disorder, and then swiper gets into a fight and is murdered. Herbert Burgess, the Metrocard swiper — “58 prior arrests and sent to prison in 1993 for 18 years after confessing to fatally strangling his roommate” — was stabbed and killed: Neighborhood residents…
Clarence Page, as usual, provides a rational, reasonable, and correct analysison the crime rise and Broken Windows.
In the LA Times: Q: Do people confuse and conflate broken windows with “zero-tolerance policing” or “stop, question and frisk” practices? A: Yes. The other day I read that a Delaware police chief said his department was going to do broken windows with steroids. I find that pretty scary because that smacks of zealotry. Broken windows is a tactic, an…
This article in the Times is worth reading. Of note: the most discretionary arrest in NYC, Dis Con, down 91 percent. Meanwhile the courts are close to empty. “This proves to us is what we all knew as defenders: You can end broken-windows policing without ending public safety,” said Justine M. Luongo, the deputy attorney-in-charge of criminal practice for the…
This article in Slate by Justin Peters is perhaps not the stupidest thing I’ve ever read on policing. But it is the stupidest thing I’ve read about Broken Windows since Bratton was announced as the next NYPD commissioner about 20 hours ago. Peters writes, “Broken-windows strategies and zero-tolerance policing strategies go hand in hand.” Well, no. They don’t. Bill Bratton…
This type of crime bothers me far more than it should. Known (at least to the cognoscente) as the “Broken Bottle Scam,” some S.O.B. bumps into somebody (usually a tourist), drops a bottle of booze, and confrontationally demands $40 for a replacement. That’s old-school New York and it’s wrong. Crap like that preys on the weak, makes people afraid of…