Police

Bratton says morale was low in the NYPD under Kelly…

…And Bratton is right. Should be the end of the story, despite what you’ll read in the Postand the Daily News. More interesting is what is buried in the Daily News story: Police made 12,495 stops between October and December — down a staggering 86% from 89,620 during the same time period in 2012. And of the stops during the…

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Police

It just don’t make sense…

Angel Rojas came to the US four years ago from the Dominican Republic with his wife, Maria Lopez and their two kids, now 12 and 8. Rojas was on a break between two jobs, riding the bus home to, (from the New York Times): …hug his children and grab a quick bite. When three young adults stepped aboard the bus,…

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Police

“Ambassadors of the NYPD”

“OK, academy class, pay attention. Today we are going to learn the ‘seven steps to positive community interactions.’ OK? And, um, even though Number Seven says ‘end on a positive note’ — stop snickering in the back — you should not say ‘have a nice day’ after cuffing somebody.”

Police

Too *few* stop, question, and frisks? Perhaps…

Bill Bratton was just quoted in the Post saying that the NYPD is conducting too few stop and frisks. Who would have thought that the shameful practice of mass stop, question, and frisk would ever end? Actually, I did (though I was two years too quick to predict its gradual demise). I knew there was internal pressure from up high…

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Police

The NYPD is a-changin’

Bratton Tells Chiefs He’ll Stop Sending Rookies to High-Crime Areas And, as you probably know, DeBlasio is dropping the city’s appeal to the stop and frisk lawsuit. But hoping to limit a federal monitor to 3 years. In response: “Four unions representing NYPD officers have filed appeals and motions opposing dismissal of the city’s appeal, which are pending.” Good times.…

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Police

A tale of two cities

Murder in Baltimore is at a four-year high. Murder in New York City is at a record low. Meanwhile, from Justin Fenton’s Baltimore Sun article, in other cities: Homicides across the country Oakland, Calif. — down 25 percent (as of Dec. 12) Philadelphia — down 24 percent (as of Dec. 16) Flint, Mich. — down 22 percent (as of Dec.…

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Police

“Decreased Stop and Frisk Causes Crime to Skyrocket in NYC”

Well that’s the headline I would have expected to see after listening to Ray Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg (and almost all my police friends) over the past few years. They had me believe that each and every one of those more than 600,000 annual stops in 2011 was absolutely essential to prevent the city from descending into an Orwellian Escape…

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Police

Broken Windows does not equal Zero Tolerance

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…

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