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Title: The Turnaround : How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic by Peter Knobler ISBN: 0-679-45251-6 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 20 January, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (12 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting in what is unsaid
Comment: This book is a ghosted autobiography of Bratton. The writing isn't as bad as some of the reviewers have suggested. It is a book that can be read in an evening. The strategies suggested by Bratton are now well known and have become the flavor of the month in the United States. To keep a neighborhood presence and to prevent the development of crime, rather than to react to the commission of more serious crime. To use technology to focus on problem areas and to maximize the police resources.
Bratton is very much the sort of person who once in job does not seem to accept things but rather wants to change things around so as to achieve different results. The interesting things are in a way left unsaid. Bratton joined the Boston Police Force after a three month stint in Vietnam as a Military Policeman. He relates how Boston at that time had significant corruption. Further a large number of police officers were lazy and avoided work. In the book there is not the slightest suggestion that Bratton as a junior police officer did anything about these things. In fact the first real outrage in the book is a passage about how outrageous it is that people urinate in the street, use language and so forth. One of Bratton's claims to fame is his focus on what has come to be known as zero tolerance policing. That is the belief that by preventing low level crime neighborhoods are protected from the development of a criminal culture. Such an approach has angered some groups in the States as it is argued that such policing styles are targeted against disadvantaged people.
The failure to act against other police in his early career is something, which is easy to understand. He as a junior police officer would not have had the power to alter entrenched patterns of behavior and he would have ended up in another profession. If some one such as Bratton was not able to act against corruption in his early years one can understand the immensity of the problem. Bratton is clearly and intelligent man with considerable drive and one who is committed to honest policing. His powerlessness as a younger man shows the importance of developing ways to ensure that police culture is monitored so the community can be protected.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not a "good read" but solid and interesting
Comment: If you're interested in the topic of police management, and effective police work in the community, this is a terrific book. Bratton is a very straightforward type, which makes him a terrific police administrator, and (with the help of an excellent co-author) not bad at explaining situations. Especially the complicated and tense problems of politics at high levels where a bad quote or misplaced humor can end one's career. Most fascinating to me were the chapters on how he turned around crime in the New York Subways when he was head of their special police force. Paying attention to small crimes, like fare evasion, made a huge difference. He also figured out how to back his men and help them work effectively. His accomplishment in reducing crime in New York City, helping police be effective and more honest, is extremely important. We hope to publish a Polish translation next year.
Rating: 5
Summary: I'm a believer
Comment: I decided to read this book when Bill Bratton
was hired as Chief of Police in Los Angeles.
This book reads like an autobiography, from Bratton's
childhood in Boston, until after his falling out with
Guiliani. Through his experiences, I learned a lot
about police work.
Critics say that Bratton's success in New York was
concurrent with a nationwide drop in crime (presumably
due to a strong economy) and thus isn't such a big deal.
Cheap shot. This book explains how a well managed
police effort absolutely has an effect on crime.
Bratton has a strong track record of accomplishment,
turning around the MBTA Police (Massachusetts Bay Transit
Authority), the Metropolitan Police (now part of the
Massachusetts State Police), the New York Transit
Police, Boston Police, and NYPD.
Bratton believes in the Broken Windows theory, i.e.
that acceptance of petty crime creates an environment
that breeds more serious crime. (The slippery slope
argument.) He also believes in analysis of crime
statistics, by location/time/etc. to determine how
to deploy police resources: originally pins on
a map, eventually growing in to the famous CompStat.
Having lived in the Boston area for many years, the
references to different parts of the city where he
worked, and to various people (Mayors, police officials,
etc.) made the book all the more interesting for me.
Also, Bratton talks about a book called Your Police
which he checked out of the library as a boy; I remember
checking that same book out of the library when I was
around 8-years old. (Although I've always had a strong
interest in it, I didn't pursue a career in law enforcement.).
Bratton certainly has his work cut out for
him in Los Angeles. The LAPD has been plagued by
scandal, inept leadership, and (not surprisingly)
low morale and high employee turnover. And crime
is pervasive -- from reckless driving, littering
and graffiti, to gang drive-by shootings.
After reading this book, I am convinced that
Bratton is exactly what L.A. needs, and I applaud
Mayor Hahn for having the spine to hire the
most qualified person for the job, despite all
of the political pressure to make an appointment
based on race.
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