Policing in New York

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Kelling and Bratton believe the police played an important role due to a number of ideas that were implemented within the police force in the early 1990s. The appointment of Bratton to police commissioner and Jack Maple to deputy commissioner and that of Rudolph Giuliani to Mayor of New York saw their idea of order maintence policing being implemented. They had an idea of policing that had been applied to the New York subway system and they had seen it work to lower crime rate in the subway (Kelling, Bratton, 1998). Bratton had also being exploring ways of improving policing through leadership, management and administration and had some changes to make when he took over the New York Police Department (NYPD) in 1994 (Kelling, Bratton, 1998). He had also tried and tested these organisational methods with the transport police department.
The idea that was tested in New York’s subway was that of order maintenance. This idea was linked to the broken windows theory. A broken window left unattended was a sign nobody cared and led to more serious damages and crime. Like this, minor offenses not dealt with by the police led people to believe no one cared and led to more serious crime and basically a downward spiral of urban decay (Kelling, Bratton, 1998). The idea of fixing this broken window theory was the basis for the tactics first implement in New York’s subway.It is important to take a brief look at New York subway system and how order maintenance was used so that we can look at further how it was applied to the rest of New York City. In the 1980s New York’s subway was a dreaded place and usage numbers were in decline. Fare beaters were common, robberies were often and homelessness and begging greeted commuters from the entrance to t...

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...rop. In 1987 drugs were a factor in 38.5 percent of the murders reported. But in 1990, drugs played a role in only 25.7 percent and this rate continued to fall.
Another argument is that the removal of lead from products helped reduce crime due to its, unknown at the time, harmful effects on the brain (Shurkin, 2013). Karmen argues that the flow of immigration into the city could also have had an impact on lowering crime as there is a constant renewing of the population (Karmen, 2000).
One argument is that people are simply becoming more civilized and violence and crime are just not acceptable and this is beginning to show up in crime statistics (Shurkin, 2013).
Some of these arguments are stronger than others for example the abortion argument while unfortunate that a person’s private sad event could lead to a public good there is weight to this argument.
Conclusion:

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