William Bratton and the Nypd

In the second part of Parenti’s book, Lockdown America, he discusses policing practices and their proactive strategies aimed at preventing disorder. In this section of the book, Parenti advances his argument by looking at crime through the eyes of law enforcement. Parenti looks at the policies of Bratton, the New York Police Commissioner. Bratton revamped the police force in the city, rewarded those that succeeded and were aggressive in doing their job and those that did not keep up with him were fired or put on the sidelines. His goals was to be efficient on every level, and being efficient meant enforcing the law even for minor offences.

In the book Island of Vice, the author Richard Zacks explains the efforts of Theodore Roosevelt to cleaning up the police department and all the people in it in order to help society of New York City function more properly. When his work first began with the police departments of New York City, Teddy lacked a lot of knowledge on what was going on and the corruption that allowed it to occur. Through a stern hand and certain tactics, he set out to make change as quickly and as effectively as he could. To a certain extent, his efforts were successful and some changes outlived his time as the commissioner.

In this paper I will discuss the history of the NYPD Corruption. I will address the founding of the department in 1845 and a few early scandals. The New York City Police Department officially is the largest municipal police force in the United States Established in 1845, the agency has primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City.The NYPD is one of the oldest police departments established in the U.S tracing its roots back to the seventeenth century. The NYPD has specialized services, including the Emergency Service Unit, K9, harbor patrol, air support, bomb disposal, counter-terrorism, criminal intelligence, anti-gang, anti-organized crime, narcotics, public transportation and public

August Vollmer and his accomplices recommended training and education as two of the main components in professionalism in policing (Bohm & Haley, 2014). When Vollmer advocated for training he begun to hire more qualified and educated people that were able to perform the job more effectively. In the past, there were no requirements for individuals to start the job so the candidates weren’t fitting the job. Vollmer also wanted the politics and policing separated (Bohm & Haley, 2014). His reform was used to “to eliminate political influences, gain control of officers, and establish crime-fighting priorities” (Bohm & Haley, 2014, Pg. 147). Vollmer’s reform had a great impact on the department and made great changes such as: limiting the police functions to law enforcement related functions only, enforced

During the Political Era the police departments were typically established and controlled by local government agencies. The Police being ran by the Local Government means that the State and Federal government did not interfere too much. Only well established families or local political groups would get the local elected positions. Police also did a lot

Policing today consists of three eras. These three eras have adapted and built off one another through history (Parr, 2014). The first era started around 1840 to 1930, and is known as the Political Era. The second Era is known as the Reform Era and lasted from 1930 to 1970. The last era is called the Community-Problem Solving Era and is still being adapted and used today. The Political Era emphasizes on meeting the needs of politicians. The police were given power through the local government and the community had very little say in what happened. The police and politicians worked together to control the city and neighborhoods (Palmiotto, 2000). This was often referred to as a ward. The ward politician controlled all the police in their neighborhood. The police officers tasks included not only crime prevention and order but a lot of social service activities that involved their neighborhoods. The officers resembled the ethnic backgrounds of the neighborhoods they lived and worked in and performed their patrols gaining trust from their community (Palmiotto, 2000). This allowed positive integration of police officers leading to more public service, and the trust of the officers to stop crime when is starts.

Corruption within the New York Police Department is a quickly growing phenomenon; to an extent, this is largely due to the cop culture that encourages silence and draws the line at honesty. The good, honest officers are afraid to speak up against co-workers and in the process become corrupt themselves. When police departments were first established in the mid-nineteenth century, corruption quickly followed suit. It began with minor acts of misconduct and today deals with serious criminal activities. Scholars have noted that there is a strong correlation between the officers taking part in corrupt acts and officers wanting to fit in with the culture. In this paper, I argue that the deeper an officer in the New York police department gets into the police culture, the more likely it is that they become involved in narcotic corruption

As Roberg and Kuykendall mentioned the adoption of such a system was an effort to help produce more professional police agencies through previously successful control means, however it became evident that it had resulted in a highly bureaucratic organization (Roberg).

     Law enforcement is divided into three major eras throughout history. These eras are the political era, the reform era and the community era. The political era that took place between 1840-1930 was characterized by five points, which was the authority was coming from politicians and the law, a broad social service function, decentralized organization, an intimate relationship with the

In the pursuit of such goals as discovering what differences there were in the ways officers perform their function based on “explicit community decisions” (Wilson, 1970, p. 4), Wilson identified the primary functions of the local police as law enforcement, order maintenance, and service delivery (Wilson, 1970). These were, according to Wilson, three distinct operational styles of policing based on the frequency and formality of police-citizen interactions. Although these operational styles were, in a sense, by products of Wilson’s search for answers to questions about organizations and local governments, they, nonetheless, became staples in criminal justice. Liederbach and Travis (2008) describe these organizational styles part of the “common

To put the broken windows theory to the test, Kelling was hired as a consultant by the New York City Transit Authority. The subway system was cleaned—specifically targeting graffiti removal. In 1990, William Bratton, an admirer of Kelling, took over the Transit Police and implemented a zero-tolerance for fare-dodging and easier processing of those arrested. These strategies, among others, became part of Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s “quality of life” initiative. [2] Was it effective? A later study of crime trends in New York City showed the rates of both petty and serious crime fell suddenly and significantly after these actions were instituted.

In the 1970’s a program named the “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program” was implemented in twenty-eight cities across the state of New Jersey. By taking police officers out of their patrol cars and into the neighborhoods, walking the beat, the program aimed to improve the wellbeing of communities as a whole. The effects of this program gave groundbreaking insight to the role law enforcement plays in providing the conformity necessary for a community to feel a sense of pride and security. The program also gave way to new understandings of how a community’s aesthetics can either discourage or entice criminal behavior. Ultimately, research following the enactment of the program provided a comprehensive look into the degression of a community’s safety as it becomes increasingly less respected by it’s inhabitants.

The most important carryover was the adoption of the preventive patrol idea. This was the notion that police presence might alter the behavior of people and efficiently maintain order. American police systems followed the ways of local and municipal governments. City governments, created within the era of the, “common man” and democratic participation, were extremely localized. City councilmen or aldermen ran the government and used political patronage freely.

The history of the NYPD organizational structure dates back to the Revolutionary War era. The British had appointed a military governor and employed citizens in order to patrol and protect New York City’s citizens (NCJRS, 1993). Concluding independence, the city adopted the London police model and created a paid professional police force that eventually created rules and regulations in which the force would adhere. Over time, restructuring let to societal changes accommodating the needs of the community and police-community relations. Opportunity for Collaboration and

As the time went on and the law enforcement system evolved and crimes got more serious and in depth and technologies advanced for both criminals and police. This is why another important thing changed in law enforcement, the equipment that they carry. The first law enforcements system in the United States in the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary times was the night watch which was similar to the modern day neighborhood watch. They didn’t wear uniforms or carry guns they mostly just watched out for suspicious activity and made people aware of anything that went wrong. Then as time went on this equipment wasn’t satisfactory for the new age. This is when many cities start to make law enforcement systems became official by issuing uniforms and guns many times. This made the law enforcement have a