Quality Of Life Policing -The Sequel

Ever since former New York Police Department police commissioner William Bratton introduced the crime fighting strategy based on the broken windows theory and written about extensively by noted criminologist George Kelling, order maintenance tactics and strategies were at the heart of dramatic crime reductions all across America. Other cities implemented their own version of it.

The theory suggests that minor crimes left unaddressed led to creating an environment that allowed more serious crimes to break out. Most residents are not the victims of violent crimes but everybody sees some form of disorder daily. Residents develop a sense that nobody is addressing things like public urination, public drunkenness, panhandling, turnstile jumping on the subway and street encampments popping up everywhere on sidewalks. A quiet resignation set in where people stopped notifying police about these offenses because police were too busy with serious crime. A big issue at the time was with “squeegee men” who would set up at busy intersections and as traffic stopped, they cleaned a vehicle’s windshield whether the driver wanted it or not. They then asked the driver for payment and if the driver refused, their windshield wipers were damaged. The only way to avoid your car not being damaged was to pay a fee for having their windshield cleaned.

The NYPD wasn’t tending to this extortion nor any of the other quality of life offenses. Then Rudy Guiliani was elected mayor of New York and he hired William Bratton as police commissioner. Things changed with a no-nonsense person leading the NYPD. Along with Jack Maple they put together a crime fighting strategy utilizing computer statistics to track how well things were going. This also made precinct commander accountable for results. Squeegee men and turn style jumpers were the first things they focused on stopping because these were things that everyday New Yorkers could see and were affected by. When people saw the results, they became supportive of this style of policing.

Police commissioners of the NYPD who followed Bratton continued with this strategy. Crime fell precipitously in all categories. New York won several designations as the safest city in America. Then politics crept into this program. Numerous race baiting groups complained that these tactics had a disparate impact and targeted minorities. Never mind that residents in minority neighborhoods were the beneficiary of safer streets and less crime victimization. The police were not targeting people; they were targeting unacceptable social behavior.

The successful bastardization of QOL policing led to its demise over time. A key tactic was not necessarily to make a summary arrest for minor offenses but to issue a summons for a later court date. Most offenders were not going to show up in court and thus a warrant was issued and when the offender was stopped on a field interview contact in the future, an arrest on a warrant could be made. It got the perpetrator of disorder off the street. They were put on notice that their unwanted behavior would no longer be tolerated and it attached consequences.

Bill De Blasio was elected mayor promising to get police to back off of Broken Windows policing and stopping the tactic of stop, question and frisk. The current New York City mayor and a former member of the NYPD did not make attacking crime, violence and disorder a priority after getting elected. That was until now. Eric Adams kept touting crime statistics as proof that the city was safe. Maybe for him it was but New Yorkers are smarter than that. They know a crap sandwich when they see one and surveys were showing that residents did not feel safe. Crime numbers are the wrong metric to use in determining the quality of life in a city. Statistics can be misleading, especially when it comes to major crimes. Most people will go through life never being the victim of a murder, armed robbery or rape. They will however be confronted and frequently by a panhandler, intoxicated street person or somebody mentally ill demonstrating frightening behavior in public spaces. Residents indicate that a sense of chaos has overtaken Gotham City and they want something done about it.

Being up for re-election in 2026, Eric Adams only now wants to do something about it. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has recently announced the creation of a Quality of Life Division to crack down on low level crime. Adam as said that this initiative would take public safety, “to the next level.” Really? One must ask why he did not make this effort immediately after being sworn in as New York City mayor?

This appears to be election year politicking. There are several other issues that need to be mentioned. I do not think Tisch who previously was the Commissioner of the sanitation department understands order maintenance policing. Commissioner Tisch needs to tell residents where she is going to get the officers from to do a large-scale push to enforce ordinances and go after perpetrators of disorder. My suggestion is for her to read former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton’s book titled Turnaround where he goes in depth explaining how this strategy works. When he became Commissioner, he asked for and received funding to hire 5,000 additional police officers. They went from having 35,000 cops to 40,000. This matters.

Twice I visited Commissioner Bratton, once in New York and once when he was police chief of Los Angeles to see firsthand how the strategy works. I sat with him and picked his brain on how to implement Broken Windows policing. He emphasized that having enough cops matters. He said he had enough officers to throw at any problem that arose. Tisch does not have that luxury as staffing has fallen well below 40,000 and the hiring cannot keep up with officers retiring and resigning. This mass exodus is the result of the beat down officers and agencies have experienced since the George Floyd era. This is no doubt just an initiative in name only designed to get a splash in the media and nothing more. She does not have the proper numbers to dedicate to order maintenance policing.

Another important question is whether Tisch will have buy in from front line officers. Officers today are hesitant to take risks involving low level offenses in this cop hating environment fearing the loss of their career or facing a criminal charge based off of an interaction with somebody mentally ill who might go off from being stopped or someone who decides to fight causing officers to use force to gain compliance. Remember Eric Garner, a career criminal who was confronted by officers for selling loose cigarettes outside a New York bodega? That is a low-level offense. His death sparked outrage and riots over the use of chokeholds as a technique to control someone resisting arrest. One officer lost his job over this incident. He should not have.

This initiative is already facing backlash from community agitators who claim without foundation that police will target minority and low-income people. This Quality of Life division inside the NYPD needs some more work before being rolled out so that some front-line cop is not put in a career ending situation over a minor offense.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com