The Secrets of New York City’s Policing Success The Big Apple’s new top cop on how to protect citizens from both street crime and terrorism. By William McGurn
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secrets-of-new-york-citys-policing-success-1485560558
When James O’Neill first put on the blue uniform and gold badge of law enforcement, it was 1983, and he was a rookie with the New York City Transit Police, riding the subways from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m. Those were the bad old days of buildings encrusted in grime and graffiti, parks and public places overrun by the homeless, and a murder rate rising relentlessly.
“In the 1980s and 1990s,” Mr. O’Neill recalls, “the police were just holding on.”
As the journal City & State noted, New York now has “one-fifth the crime of 1990 with a million more people.” It’s not the only thing that’s changed. That rookie transit officer is now Gotham’s top cop.
On its own, the success of New York’s Finest in bringing down murder and other violent crime is a remarkable achievement. What makes it more extraordinary is how hard it seems to be for other big cities to replicate. A month ago The Wall Street Journal released a survey that found 16 of the nation’s 20 largest police departments reported more murders in 2016 than the year before.
The city grabbing the most attention is Chicago. Other, smaller towns (Detroit, New Orleans, St. Louis) have even higher levels of murder relative to population, but there’s good reason to focus on the Windy City. The liberal Brennan Center for Justice reports that Chicago’s skyrocketing murder count—762 in 2016, up from 480 in 2015—accounts for nearly half the homicide increase in the nation’s 30 largest cities. This week President Trump focused attention on Chicago when he threatened on Twitter to “send in the Feds” if local officials fail to address the “horrible ‘carnage.’ ”
In a meeting Tuesday with Wall Street Journal editors, Commissioner O’Neill declined to comment on the Chicago police. But the Windy City’s troubles go beyond the cops. For example, while in New York someone convicted of carrying a loaded firearm faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 3½ years, in Chicago the law gives judges more discretion, which they use to give gun offenders lighter sentences.
In 2011 Mayor Rahm Emanuel brought in an NYPD vet, Garry McCarthy, as police superintendent. For 2014 Chicago police reported the lowest number of homicides in almost 50 years, though the total remained over 400 throughout Mr. McCarthy’s tenure and in 2012 had swelled to more than 500. In any case, Mr. McCarthy was sacked in 2015 after a horrendous video emerged showing a Chicago police officer firing 16 shots into a man who did not appear a threat.
The video set off a perfect storm that has contributed to the current mayhem. The officer faces charges of first-degree murder. On its way out the door, President Obama’s Justice Department dropped a report accusing Chicago cops of a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional force.
In response, Chicago cops have shied away from enforcing the law, because they fear becoming the next face on the evening news. Mr. Emanuel said in 2015 that they had gone “fetal.” Carnage is exactly the right word for the result. Not a month into the new year, the Chicago Tribune reports there have already been 45 homicides.
Mr. Trump is probably wrong to believe the feds have the answer. But his tweet does point to a big question: What is the secret sauce in the NYPD’s recipe?
One big part of New York’s success is the acknowledgment that most violent crimes occur in poor and minority areas. That means people living in those neighborhoods will have more interactions with police, whether it’s a stop-and-frisk or an early morning raid on a neighbor’s apartment. It also means, because of demographics, that the stops, searches and arrests will disproportionately affect black and Latino men.
The answer is not to deny this reality, but to make extra efforts to enlist the law-abiding on the side of the police. That’s why Ray Kelly, the NYPD commissioner under Mayor Mike Bloomberg, spent almost all his Sundays in the city’s black churches. CONTINUE AT SITE
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