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…
In Chicago, as in New York City, police officers have been instructed to fill out a new an extremely burdensome form every time they stop somebody. This would be great if eliminating police stops were a worthy goal. In Chicago, as reported in the Sun-Times: Interim Chicago Police Supt. John Escalante said Tuesday he hopes to counter a severe downturn…
Interesting conceptreported in the New York Times to get subway dancers out of the subway. An arrest based approach wasn’t working (not the first time you’ve heard that): Arrests alone — though drastically increasing — were not solving the problem, Mr. Bassin said. He said many of the dancers interviewed in the planning stages of the new effort viewed being…
Clarence Page, as usual, provides a rational, reasonable, and correct analysison the crime rise and Broken Windows.
Shootings are up 20 percent this year. Bratton is blaming marijuana. I doubt it. But maybe. I’m certainly willing to consider the idea. Most liberals, I find, never ever consider the idea that their advocacy might have unintended consequences, like more young black men getting murdered. That said, Bratton pointed to drug dealers getting killed. That was illegal last year…
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…