Brits Look Through "Broken Windows"

Remember “Broken Windows” policing? That’s the approach to policing introduced into New York City by Police Commissioner Joseph Bratton and Mayor Rudi Giuliani a decade ago.

Do you remember the results? Excellent! Murder down by 76 percent from 2,262 to 540 per year. Rapes down by 44 percent. And so on.

And let us not forget to credit the conservative scribblers and foundations that proposed all this: James Q. Wilson. Myron Magnet. Manhattan Institute. City Journal.

So now, as the crime rate in Britain spirals into the stratosphere, now, finally, New Labour under Tony Blair have invited the “Broken Windows” crew to Britain to talk about their experience. Gee. After, all crime has merely increased by 2,300 percent in Britain in the last century. It might be time to do something about it.

The Spectator’s Alistair Heath got to talk to Joseph Bratton. Bratton is now the police chief in Los Angeles.

‘You can do something about crime. You can control it,’ Bratton said. ’The American experience has clearly proven that. In the 1990s we finally got it right. It’s like a doctor dealing with a patient. If you find the right medicines, you can take even the most severely ill patients and make them well. And you’re probably one of the most severely ill patients of the Western world. You need political will. You need smart policing, intelligence-led policing, you need resources. This is not rocket science. Fighting crime is not the most difficult thing in the world.’

Actually, better than fighting crime would be to end the social pathologies in the inner cities introduced by liberal social welfare programs, but that’s too much to ask for.

So what should be done? The first requirement is large numbers of police officers... Officers have to pursue seemingly minor crimes that, if left unattended, soon undermine order, especially ‘quality of life’ offences such as graffiti, litter or vandalism — hence ‘broken windows’ policing. The police must... tap local knowledge and identify the small core of offenders responsible for much of the crime... [L]ocal commanders must be penalised if crime doesn’t fall in their area.

Like they say. This is not rocket science. But it does involve accountability. That could be a problem, for the politicians of the British Labour Party, like politicians generally, are not exactly into accountability.