William Bratton and the Compstat Idea essays

William Bratton and the Compstat Idea essays William Bratton is not afraid of hard work. He does not back away from a challenge; rather, he embraces it. Perhaps this is why he became so successful in the field of law enforcement. Bratton, who holds a bachelor's degree from Boston State College and is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute, first became a police officer in Boston in 1970. Just ten years later he was the superintendent of police, which is the highest sworn rank in the Boston Police Department (Dussault 1, 2). From there he went on to manage police agencies, transportation authorities, and the New York City Transit Police (where he cut subway crime by nearly 50%) (Dussault 1). In 1993 he was named police While Bratton was enjoying his much-deserved success in Boston, the New York City crime rate was suffering from the defeatist attitude that prevailed among cops everywhere. Policemen believed they could do nothing about crime; in their minds, crime was caused by societal factors such as unemployment, broken families, and bad education, and how could they possibly fix those issues' Police commanders accepted their cops' excuses that they did not have the proper resources to fight crime, and as a result, crime rates rose (PoliceTalk.com 1). However, when Rudolph Giuliani became mayor of New York City, he did not want to hear any excuses, and he wanted to make good on his promise to lower the crime rate. Giuliani knew how successful Bratton had been as head of the New York City Transit Police as well as in other areas, so he appointed Bratton as police When Bratton was sworn in, he made New York City a promise: "The NYPD would fight crime in every boroughand win. Crime would go down by 10 percent the first year and by another 15 percent the next" (Tapellini 1). Many people thought Bratton was a fool to make such a bold promise; they were wrong. From 1994 t...