Customer Reviews

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

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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 have been teaching college level police management courses since 1976. I began to cite Bratton's tactics and leadership style in my lectures after he appeared in TIME and predicted that his name will be in police text books in the near future along with other heavyweights. Sure enough, in John Dempsey's "Introduction To Policing" (second edition) Bratton's COMPSTAT efforts are cited on pages 24-25. What is surprising to me are the negative reviews posted on this Amazon review section. They apparently have no clue on the nature of social disorder fostered in the "Broken Window" syndrome embraced by Bratton and integrated into his crime-specific targeting tactics of COMPSTAT. And yes crime did decrease in the nation during that period but that had nothing to do with targeting the notorious "window wipers" and recently paroled ex-cons (read the book to learn about these police tactics). I wonder if the negative reviewers are part of the traditional set that resisted needed change in how police do business? But I respect Bratton for his leadership style. Talk to New York transit cops who got new radios, Glocks and black leather jackets. Those little things mean a lot to street cops and that's what bonds them to their leaders. And, after being on the job only for a few weeks, he goes into the NYPD precinct to personally supervise the arrest of the cocaine cops then faced the cameras holding up the badges telling the city that the badge numbers will never be used again forever. It is a leadership paradigm that others wish they had thought of first. Of course, his detractors will call it grandstanding. If they know so much, how come they never got to be top cop of Boston, NYPD or LAPD?

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.

All-and-all, this is a wonderful book and it should appeal to many different types of people. Police officers, Bostonians, New Yorkers, managers of businesses and citizens interested in learning more about policing and crime should all find something to enjoy in this book.

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.

All-and-all, this is a wonderful book and it should appeal to many different types of people. Police officers, Bostonians, New Yorkers, managers of businesses and citizens interested in learning more about policing and crime should all find something to enjoy in this book.

This reviewer has no insight into how much of the book was written by Bratton and how much was written Knobler. Regardless, this book is a quick and delightful read. The language is rough and informal as one might expect from a police chief turned author, but is written with enough balance that it could be used a textbook for a criminology class. Assuming that Knobler had a major hand in this book, this reviewer intends to seek out his other books to see if they are as excellently written.

Having recently read Giuliani's book, it is striking how much less ego is in this book than in Giuliani's book which covers many of the same events and initiatives. Additionally, there are many striking differences of fact in this book and Giuliani's. Not just the discussions of personalities and why different folks were moved around or fired, but very specific things such as the level of computerization in COMPSTAT and the timing of the "rollout" of different initiatives. All things being equal, this reader would tend to believe the Bratton version of events since he was working these issues much closer than the Mayor would have been.

The book is not a true biography of Bratton. It has a short biographical section which is primarily structured to discuss why he became a cop and how his philosophy to criminology was developed. Then the book talks about Bratton's initiatives as the highest uniformed officer at Boston, as head of the transit police in NYC, as head of the Boston police, and finally his crowning triumph as Commissioner of NYPD.

To be completely honest, this reviewer has little interest in police matters. This book was read as a research project for a scholar I work with. Despite this lack of background, I found some very interesting ideas outlined in this book. First, large institutions - Governmental Bureaucracies, military, police - tend to become monolithic and exclusive. This means that members of those organizations, in order to avoid stagnation and collapse as society changes around them, must constantly scan the outside world to lift the best ideas and procedures available. Second, American nature is fascinated and compelled by change and innovation. To sell ideas and make the folks doing the work feel involved and have ownership, one might consider selling the ideas often as innovation even if they are more evolutionary than revolutionary. Finally, Bratton and Giuliani ultimately did quite a bit of damage to both the general population of NYC and the NYPD because of their huge egos. After reading this book, I am willing to believe that Giuliani had the larger share of fault in this, but the there is plenty of blame for both in this case.

Many will say that Bratton just rode the wave of national crime reduction. Some of the things they might cite as the real cause of the crime reduction might be: (1) the graying of America's general population. (2) The shift from Crack (a stimulant) to Heroin (a depressant). (3) The availability of cheap and legal abortions essentially killed the poor and disadvantaged before they had the opportunity to grow to adulthood and become criminals. (4) The decrease in crimes in NYC was simply a reflection of the statistical decrease of crime across the nation. While there is a grain of truth in all of these, they miss the point. NYC far exceeded the national average in crime reduction. Additionally, NYC is such a large population that they were a significant factor in the nation-wide reduction numbers. One need only look at cities like Washington DC or New Orleans to see that not all cities experienced reduced crime during this period. Therefore, the Bratton's policies must have had a significant role in crime reduction in addition to the elements discussed above.

Of course, part of the reason that this book was written was to help Bratton with his public speaking and consulting business that he started after leaving NYPD. However, that fact does not detract from its usefulness. Additionally, it must be noted that Bratton has recently returned to public service as Police Commissioner at LAPD. It will be interesting to see what initiatives he develops in that much different environment and how effective his "old" techniques developed at Boston and NYC will be in an environment that is much different both culturally and geographically.

In summary, this is an excellent book. I highly recommend it for folks interested in leadership, innovation, criminology, or the recent history of NYC. This book is better than Giuliani's both in terms of the writing and its usefulness.

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.

What an ego!!! But to be honest, perhaps Bratton deserves to toot his horn. Although I never worked for him, my cousin served under him when he was Chief of Transit Police in NYC. She loved him. He got her the Glock semiautomatic sidearm, he changed the look of the Transit Police and he reduced subway crime during the peak of New York's crime wave. I guess it took me a while to get to Bratton's book, but I'm glad I finally did. The question is: Is William Bratton a great cop, or a great politician? Perhaps he's both.

Read it! I was captured by the introduction alone. Branton brings you behind the pillars of city hall and exposes an otherwise great Mayor as an ambitious headline grabber (not that there is anything wrong with that). This book left me (a NJ to NYC commuter) that the 2 year sinking feeling of the relationship between the mayor and Commissioner was "this town ain't big enough for both enough." It is a shame. Branton delivers a biting biography that does not pull the proverbial punch.

If you're interested in the topic of police management, and effective police work in the community, this is a terrific book. Bratton is a very straightforward type, which makes him a terrific police administrator, and (with the help of an excellent co-author) not bad at explaining situations. Especially the complicated and tense problems of politics at high levels where a bad quote or misplaced humor can end one's career. Most fascinating to me were the chapters on how he turned around crime in the New York Subways when he was head of their special police force. Paying attention to small crimes, like fare evasion, made a huge difference. He also figured out how to back his men and help them work effectively. His accomplishment in reducing crime in New York City, helping police be effective and more honest, is extremely important. We hope to publish a Polish translation next year.

The former Commissioner of the New York Police Department takes the reader on an odyssey which was his career in American Policing. From his early years with Boston, through successful tenures with the New York Transit Police, Metro Police, the Boston Police(again)and finally the NYPD. Insightful and thoughtful comments on the role of the police in society are coupled with a sober reflection on what works in policing. With a minimal amount of personal grand-standing, Bratton does even some scores with folks who were "obstacles" in his career. A pleasant and enlightening view of the world of the modern urban police administrator.