New York, New York – Mayor de Blasio may have scored a major success in compelling the city’s vaunted police department to suspend arrests under the “Broken Window” policy.
This is a tactic of law enforcement that seeks a reduction in major crime by enforcement of minor offenses. In all honesty, there is precedent for the practice having produced great results in other towns and cities. However, every city is different and it appears the sheer size of New York City rendered the policy ineffective. At the same time, the NYPD did not comply willingly with Mayor de Blasio’s demands and chose to intentionally avoid citing traffic offenses to put the monetary squeeze on the city.
There is a legitimate breech in the relationship the mayor has with the police department following Eric Garner and the two officers who were killed while sitting in their patrol car. Still, major crime appears to be declining dramatically as the police devote their attention to responding to serious felonies.
No one can deny that Mayor Rudy Giuliani turned the city from the most danger metropolis of its size into the nation’s safest city via tough law enforcement. At the same time, that was a different era.
Civil rights groups believed that the NYPD was arbitrarily targeting minorities for minor offenses. While areas with high minority concentrations have the highest crime rates, the “Broken Window” policy began to portray the police as being part of the problem. If the current trend of declining crime holds, it may be that the police reshape their image and protect the city at the same time.