Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic

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.

I found this book to be interesting on many levels. The book is interesting, first, as an autobiography of one of the most important police commissioners of the twentieth century. Bratton has an interesting story to tell, and he is a good storyteller. He recounts what his childhood was like growing up in the Boston suburbs, and how he rose from humble beginnings to become the most important police officer in the United States. This part of the book is inspirational, and is very much in the self-improvement tradition of American autobiography (think Benjamin Franklin, Malcolm X, etc.). This book is interesting, further, because Bratton explains the type of power politics that are played in police departments. This part of the book really surprised me. I thought that Bratton would keep mum about all the negative things that occur at police headquarters. But, instead, he details the infighting that often happens between the old guard and the new guard. As Bratton explains it, members of the old guard do not take well to newer officers who are advancing quickly, and try to thwart their progress. The ways in which they do this are Machiavellian and are, accordingly, fun to read about. Bratton does not pull any punches in describing the run-ins he had with members of the old guard at the Boston police department, as well as his famous battles with Rudolph Giuliani, while Bratton was head of the NYPD. Readers will be astonished and disconcerted by the type of hardball officers and government officials play, so that these power-seekers can receive credit for initiatives that might not even have stemmed from their own ideas. This book is interesting, too, from a philosophical perspective. Bratton was the first major police commissioner to put the "broken windows" policing philosophy into practice. The broken windows philosophy, in short, says that ignoring petty crime provides an atmosphere that is conducive to all types of crime. For instance, if a criminal sees a street that has broken windows, then the criminal may believe that it is open season for committing crime on that street. Bratton found that, by reducing the amount of city-wide petty crime, he was also able to reduce the number of city-wide serious crime. It is interesting to read about this theory of policing, which originated in an essay written by James Q. Wilson and George Keller, and how the theory works in practice. This book is interesting, lastly, from a management perspective. I would recommend this book to students in business school, or to anyone who is responsible for overseeing large groups of people. Bratton gives many insights into how to interact well with the press, how to keep employees happy and how to sell a program. It is not clear whether Bratton intended his book to be read from this angle, but I think that his book contains many remarkable pearls of wisdom on how to run and operate a large organization.

I found this book to be interesting on many levels. The book is interesting, first, as an autobiography of one of the most important police commissioners of the twentieth century. Bratton has an interesting story to tell, and he is a good storyteller. He recounts what his childhood was like growing up in the Boston suburbs, and how he rose from humble beginnings to become the most important police officer in the United States. This part of the book is inspirational, and is very much in the self-improvement tradition of American autobiography (think Benjamin Franklin, Malcolm X, etc.). This book is interesting, further, because Bratton explains the type of power politics that are played in police departments. This part of the book really surprised me. I thought that Bratton would keep mum about all the negative things that occur at police headquarters. But, instead, he details the infighting that often happens between the old guard and the new guard. As Bratton explains it, members of the old guard do not take well to newer officers who are advancing quickly, and try to thwart their progress. The ways in which they do this are Machiavellian and are, accordingly, fun to read about. Bratton does not pull any punches in describing the run-ins he had with members of the old guard at the Boston police department, as well as his famous battles with Rudolph Giuliani, while Bratton was head of the NYPD. Readers will be astonished and disconcerted by the type of hardball officers and government officials play, so that these power-seekers can receive credit for initiatives that might not even have stemmed from their own ideas. This book is interesting, too, from a philosophical perspective. Bratton was the first major police commissioner to put the "broken windows" policing philosophy into practice. The broken windows philosophy, in short, says that ignoring petty crime provides an atmosphere that is conducive to all types of crime. For instance, if a criminal sees a street that has broken windows, then the criminal may believe that it is open season for committing crime on that street. Bratton found that, by reducing the amount of city-wide petty crime, he was also able to reduce the number of city-wide serious crime. It is interesting to read about this theory of policing, which originated in an essay written by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, and how the theory works in practice. This book is interesting, lastly, from a management perspective. I would recommend this book to students in business school, or to anyone who is responsible for overseeing large groups of people. Bratton gives many insights into how to interact well with the press, how to keep employees happy and how to sell a program. It is not clear whether Bratton intended his book to be read from this angle, but I think that his book contains many remarkable pearls of wisdom on how to run and operate a large organization.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and found it very educational. I am a criminal justice and law enforcement major, and this was one of our required texts for community oriented policing class. I just can't believe how badly Bratton got the short end of the stick from Guiliani. I wish it would be worthwhile to write Mayor Guiliani and give him a piece of my mind. Oh well, I don't live in NYC, but either way, at least he's on his last term! Guiliani should be thankful for Bratton's work and that Bratton is still granting his residence to Guiliani's esteemed city. I'll stop griping now.