New York City Case Study

In the early 1990’s the crime rate in New York City was astronomical. Every category including the eight nature index crimes were all on the rise if not extremely high already. Mayor Giuliani a former federal United States prosecutor was elected into office and brought with him a reputation of viciousness against crime. His campaigns lead to the appointment of Commissioner William Joseph Bratton to hold the position of police commissioner of New York City. Giuliani learnt of Bratton’s amazing crime reduction plan that helped reduce crime in two other cities. He requested him for the position as police commissioner for New York City and was appointed in 1990. Bratton had previously helped establish an innovative policing program in Boston Back Bay neighborhood and Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. Using the same approach he would attempt to reorganize and help the New

According to Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General in Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics the NYPD is the largest municipal police force in the United States (Gonzales A. 2003). There were already existing problems within the New York Police Department that needed to be fixed. According to John Buntin in a case study entitled The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City the Chief of Narcotics had not spoken with the Chief of Patrol for over a year ( Buntin 1999, pg 5). Berman E. refers to this problem as Lack of Communication. The communication between commanders in different precincts needed to increase. Another problem was that superiors and police officers had different priorities. The Superiors in the department was more focused on avoiding major corruption scandals than on policing the streets and enforcing the law. They had a fear of corruption within the department while Police Officers were more focused on reducing crime, disorder and fear. Berman E. refers to this problem as Mission is not being