Vol. 10 No. 2 (February 2000) pp. 127-129.

NYPD BATTLES CRIME: INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES by Eli B. Silverman. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1999. 243 pp. Cloth $50.00. Paper $22.00.

Reviewed by Craig Hemmens, Department of Criminal Justice Administration, Boise State University.

The public makes repeated demands that politicians and the police "get tough" on crime. The media often follows the adage "if it bleeds, it leads," in choosing the story of the day. Not surprisingly, the police have responded to all of this by seeking new and better ways to fight crime. These include more proactive police investigative practices and an increased reliance on technology. Nowhere is this shift in police focus more pronounced than in New York City, where the police have combined "zero tolerance policing," computers, and new management techniques to fight crime. In the last five years, New York City has experienced a dramatic reduction in crime. Between 1993 and 1997 the number of felony complaints dropped 44 percent, while the murder rate declined by more than 60 percent. Although the New York Police Department (NYPD) is receiving much of the credit for this crime decline, many criminologists have downplayed the NYPD's role. Instead, they have argued that prevailing social, economic, and demographic conditions are the primary reasons for the unprecedented drop in crime rates. Others have criticized the tactics employed by the NYPD. Although the media and politicians have had much to say about New York City's turnaround, academics have, until now, added little to the discussion.

Eli B. Silverman, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, has, in NYPD BATTLES CRIME: INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES, provided one of the first in-depth scholarly accounts of the transformation of the New York City Police Department. His account is timely, highly readable, andessential reading for criminal justice scholars and practitioners, politicians, and organization scholars. It is also only part of the story.

Silverman begins his study with a historical review of the evolution of police reform movements in New York City. He shows that the achievements and failures of earlier external and internal initiatives formed the foundation for today's re-engineered NYPD. Silverman presents a clear account of previous attempts by the NYPD to improve its image and reduce corruption. He argues, convincingly, that by the 1990s, NYPD administrators were more concerned with preventing police corruption and improving the department's image than with reducing crime.

Silverman provides an excellent analysis of previous police reform measures and the political forces that doomed them to failure. One chapter focuses on pre-1984 reforms, which generally came about in response to corruption scandals. One result of these reforms was to further centralize

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power in police headquarters in an attempt to remove power from street cops, who were seen as too susceptible to temptation. Another chapter focuses
on reform efforts between 1984 and 1994. The NYPD during this period made modest attempts to introduce community policing, but the efforts were largely unsuccessful because the NYPD was resistant to change and city leaders failed to support the programs.

In 1994 William Bratton became police commissioner and immediately instituted a number of significant reforms. First, he insisted on using technology to improve efforts to fight crime. He increased the transfer of information and pushed lower levels to use the information to reduce crime. He also instituted a regular series of meetings with commanders to discuss crime statistics and to encourage innovative responses. From these strategy sessions came the "zero tolerance" approach to law enforcement, the use of civil remedies to fight crime, and the reorganization of the NYPD to give greater authority to the precincts so that they could respond quicker to crime problems in their area. Bratton made a number of personnel changes, and he promoted those who obtained crime reductions while forcing out those who were resistant to change. Mayor Rudolph Guiliani supported these measures, and the crime reductions were highly publicized and garnered tremendous public support.

Drawing on privileged access to police documents and meetings, Silverman examines how the dynamic interaction of specific strategic, organizational, and managerial changes redefined the approach to policing and transformed the department from a reactive to a proactive force. Prior police administrators, stung by a series of scandals, had moved to centralize power in headquarters and to insulate police officers from criminal opportunities. This was achieved by limiting the power of precinct commanders and by discouraging proactive policing. Bratton demanded an immediate change. He insisted on holding his precinct commanders accountable for increases in crime in their neighborhoods. Bratton achieved this shift by utilizing Compstat, a sophisticated computer program that compiles crime statistics, as the crucial mechanism for linking the development of new policies with effective tactics to control crime. The up-to-date and accurate information provided by Compstat was used as the basis for discussing crime control strategies with precinct commanders. The information provided by Compstat was used to improve planning, coordination, evaluation, and accountability.

Bratton and his commanders developed a number of innovative strategies to reduce crime, but the one that has received the most attention is "zero tolerance policing," or, as the NYPD prefers, "reclaiming the open spaces of New York." The zero tolerance approach to crime is based on the idea that a focus on the more visible crimes such as loitering, peddling, graffiti, and other "quality of life" offenses can reduce public fear of crime. This requires the police become less reactive and more proactive. It also brings them into much more frequent negative contact with many citizens, not all of whom are in fact violating the law. Mayor Giuliani and the media seized on zero tolerance policing as the primary cause of the crime decline in New York, but as this book points out, much of the credit for the decline might be a result of the Compstat meetings and the reorganization of the NYPD.

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Silverman chooses not to cover, or more accurately dismisses with a couple of pages, the impact of the NYPD's crime fighting strategy not just on crime rates (with which it might not be related), but on the residents of New York. Organizational change and use of technology to better fight crime is all to the good and few would challenge the assertion that these changes are for the better. However, intimately tied into these innovations is the decision of the NYPD to employ zero-tolerance policing. There is almost no discussion of the troubling aspects of the NYPD's zero-tolerance policing tactics, such as allegations of harassment, racial discrimination, and excessive force. The highly publicized Louima beating and the Diallo shooting are the most prominent examples of such behavior, but there are many more
complaints. Such reports suggest that police-citizen encounters have taken on a more hostile posture. Indeed, Bratton openly endorsed the adoption of an "us-versus-them" approach to policing that is at odds with community policing tactics, which stress cooperation with the community and citizen input in police decision-making. Additionally, Silverman acknowledges at several points that there are other possible explanations for the reduction in the crime rate, and admits that other cities, such as San Diego, have had equally impressive declines in crime without using the same tactics.

This in-depth account provides a "behind the scenes" view of the NYPD and its efforts to fight crime. The most interesting and useful component of the book, however, is its story of organizational change, innovation, and continuity. Silverman provides a fascinating description of how a huge, slow-moving bureaucracy was transformed into a lively, quick-acting organization through the adoption of technological advances and the implementation of modern management principles and strong leadership.

The book is written in a lively manner, and the non-police professional learns a great deal from it. All government and police managers should read this book. However, their reading should not occur in a vacuum. This book demonstrates clearly that the NYPD has improved how it functions as an organization. Left unanswered by this book is the question of whether some of the key methods of fighting crime are, in the long run, best for the city and its citizenry.