guess who’s back, back again. bratton’s back, tell a friend.

10 NYPD cops surround me out outside, ’round me outside, ’round me outside; ok, so I should’ve just stuck with the title, but I couldn’t help it, it was just too convenient of a parody! But in any case, if you haven’t heard already, good ol’ Bill Bratton is back in NYC, and is going to be the new (if you could even use such a term with him) police commissioner replacing Ray Kelly once Bill De Blasio replaces Mike Bloomberg as the Mayor. Those of you who aren’t native New Yorkers, or simply don’t much care for politics are probably reading this and are like…so? Well, let me tell you, it it noteworthy news indeed!

William Joseph “Bill” Bratton was the NYPD Commissioner between 1994 and 1996, and before that was in charge of the NYC Transit Police dept between 1990 and 1992. While his was Commissioner the first time, he was instrumental in implementing the “broken window” style of policing, in which if you don’t deal with minor/petty crimes, crime overall will increase. During his time, he was known for making many of the changed to the NYPD that are still in effect to this day, such as integrating Housing and Transportation Police into the NYPD, changing the uniform from light blue, to dark blue, and CompStat, which is how the NYPD tracks crime. He’s also known for being on Mayor Giuliani’s shit list for getting more of the credit of the drop in crime and reforms in the City than he did.

What really has me wondering is Bratton’s take on the controversial “stop and frisk” policy. After Bratton left NYC, he went on the be the 54th Commissioner for the LAPD, and implemented stop and frisk over there, which effectively reduced the amount of gang related violence. Here’s the dilemma though, New York doesn’t have the same level of gang related violence as LA, so how would someone who’s for it like Bratton manage to work with Mayor-elect De Blasio who is all about reform? In fact, it’s Brattons broken mirror policy that breathed life into the stop and frisk policy as we know it. I’m sure that a lot of people were raising an eyebrow when De Blasio announced that Bratton would be his Commissoner, and Giuliani is pissed off; but hey, he’s not the Mayor anymore anyways. What’s your take on it?