As New York's police commissioner in the 1990s, the 'supercop' introduced a ground-breaking policy under which officers cracked down hard on even the smallest infringements to deter people from carrying out bigger crimes.
America's most fearsome policeman has been appointed David Cameron's top adviser on gang warfare. Bill Bratton, who introduced zero-tolerance policing to New York and turned around crime-ridden Los Angeles, will help ministers draw up plans to tackle gang culture in Britain's cities.
Mr Cameron also announced yesterday that he has set up a review into what can be done to stop gangs. Mr Bratton, 63, will be a major contributor to this review, which will report back in October
This led to major crimes falling 39 per cent, with murders down 50 per cent, during his time in charge. Another crucial factor was his introduction of sophisticated data analysis techniques. At weekly meetings, officers tracked crime patterns on computers so they could target problem areas.
Mr Bratton was forced to resign from the force in 1996 as city officials investigated the propriety of a book deal he had made while in office. But he took over the scandal-plagued Los Angeles police in 2002, and again helped turn the city around. Under his leadership, crime there dropped for six years in a row, including a 24 per cent fall in homicides which relieved the city of its title as America's murder capital.
Just a month into the job, he was confronted by demonstrators angry at the deaths of two teenagers in a car which crashed after police had shot at it. When the protesters demanded, 'Control your officers', Mr Bratton simply replied: 'Control your kids.'
He was similarly blunt when he addressed an audience at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, telling them: 'Wake up! You have a cancer that is eating your city. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee!' And when the LA city council refused to give him 320 more officers, Mr Bratton went over its head and called for a public referendum, accusing councillors of being out of touch with the daily mayhem on the streets.
In 2006, when in Britain for a conference, he told the BBC's Today programme he was 'amazed' how little the UK public and media appreciated how hard their police were working to keep them safe. 'Shame on you, the public of this country,' he said. In the same interview, he backed the publishing of paedophiles' addresses, saying: 'My support goes to anything to protect our children, not sex paedophiles.'
And when liberal academics questioned whether his zero-tolerance policy was responsible for falling crime, he derided them in a magazine article, calling them 'ivory tower academics… many of whom have never sat in a patrol car, walked or bicycled a beat, lived in or visited regularly troubled violent neighbourhoods'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1Ula8jrVk
Bringing US policing to the UK
Bringing US policing to the UK
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bringing US policing to the UK
Are there enough donut shops and Starbucks to make this work? 
Re: Bringing US policing to the UK
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bringing US policing to the UK
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bringing US policing to the UK
'bout time, or else there'll be riots.
...oh, wait.
...oh, wait.
