Tag: Broken Windows Policing

Getting Broken Windows Policing Right

I just listened to the 2 part podcast “History of Police Oppression of Africans in America” and I have to correct the discussion about Broken Windows Policing in part 2 of the podcasts.

The podcast:

At the 16:00 minute make the discussion turns to what is Broken Windows Policing.  The Interviewee Ronald Hampton is touted as a policing expert.  Mr. Hampton presents that Broken Windows Policing in New York City (NYC) was used to victimize city residents.  Hampton argues that incarceration grew because of Broken Windows Policing.  More youths were arrest for just simply doing what youths do like hanging around street corners.  At the 19:00 minute mark Dr. Ron Daniels (the host) adds that Broken Windows Policing criminalized person side hustles such as 3 card monte street games and squeegee men.

My critique:

The discussion about Broken Windows Policing was at the very least inflated or misconstrued at worst the discussion purposely misrepresented the facts about Broken Windows Policing.  Broken Windows Policing transformed NYC to the safest large city in America.  In the 1990’s the implementation of Broken Windows Policing as the predominate crime-fighting strategy lowered crime and made NYC safer.  Broken Windows Policing was used to enforce the rules, violations, and crimes that affected New Yorker’s quality-of-life.  Arrests for city ordinances or penal law violations alone did not increase incarceration in NYC.  Youth did not go to jail for hanging around street corners.  At most police would have the youth move on or take them to the police precinct and release the youth to their parents.  Youths or juveniles can’t be arrested for any offense less than a crime.  Lastly, 3 card monte street games and squeegee men are perfect examples of the type of quality-of-life violations that New Yorker’s wanted to end.  Three (3) card monte street games are fraudulent schemes to trick people out of money.  The fraudsters also worked the crowd to pickpocket observers.  Squeegee men would spill substances on windows, step in front of vehicles, and threaten occupants to coerce the drive to paying for a car windshield cleaning.  Both 3 card monte street games and squeegee men activities were crimes.

Dive deeper into Broken Windows Policing with these key resources:

Bratton, William, and Peter Knobler. Turnaround: How America’s top cop reversed the crime epidemic. Random House, 2009.

Kelling, George L., and Catherine M. Coles. Fixing broken windows: Restoring order and reducing crime in our communities. Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Kelling, George L., and James Q. Wilson. “Broken windows.” Atlantic monthly 249, no. 3 (1982): 29-38.

Maple, Jack, and Chris Mitchell. The crime fighter: Putting the bad guys out of business. Crown, 2010.

Neighborhood Disorder – MOST Policy Initiative

Neighborhood disorder includes physical and social disruptions.
Disorder, also referred to as incivility, can refer to a variety of norm violating behaviors and conditions (Skogan 2015). Disorder is often categorized as physical disorder or social disorder. Social disorder refers to potentially threatening behavior from strangers while physical disorder refers to the deterioration of the urban landscape (Sampson and Raudenbush 1999).

Physical disorder in neighborhoods includes (Ndjilia et al 2019):

Broken windows
Trash
Empty bottles
Deteriorated, vacant, or run-down buildings
Graffiti or vandalism
Discarded needles or drug paraphernalia
In contrast, social disorder in neighborhoods includes:

Crime
Public alcohol use
Drug use or trafficking
Unwillingness to help neighbors
Prostitution
Absence of interpersonal relationships
— Read on mostpolicyinitiative.org/science-note/neighborhood-disorder/

NYPD quality-of-life subway crackdown aimed at finding criminal offenders

A homeless man accused of shoplifting 17 times at the same Queens Duane Reade and menacing a security guard was back behind bars after police took him into custody for stretching out across several subway seats, the Daily News has learned. The NYPD said the Feb. 7 arrest of Luis Caballero, 36, is an example of how enforcing NYC Transit rules maintains order in the subway system and often leads …
— Read on www.yahoo.com/news/nypd-quality-life-subway-crackdown-130000503.html

Fixing ‘Broken Windows’ theory: Smart — not harsh — policing is the key to a safe and orderly city

If you’re familiar with the Broken Windows theory of policing, you may have learned of it, perhaps indirectly, from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller “The Tipping Point,” published 25 years ago.
— Read on nypost.com/2025/01/05/opinion/fixing-broken-windows-theory-smart-not-harsh-policing-is-the-key-to-a-safe-and-orderly-city/

Broken Windows Policing Is Still the Best Way to Fight Crime

If you’re familiar with the Broken Windows theory of policing, you may have learned of it, perhaps indirectly, from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller The Tipping Point, published 25 years ago. In the book’s most-discussed chapter, Gladwell sought to explain why New York City, in the 1990s, suddenly experienced the greatest drop in violent crime ever recorded. True, other cities saw crime declines in this period, but nowhere else did crime plunge so significantly and so swiftly. In just a few years, New York went from being one of the most dangerous and frightening big cities in America to one of the safest. Why?

Gladwell surveyed various possibilities having to do with the economy, changing demographics, and the waning of the deadly crack trade, but found them unpersuasive. The real difference-maker, he said, was the NYPD’s commitment to Broken Windows policing—the disarmingly simple idea that serious crimes are more likely to occur in disorderly environments than orderly ones. By upgrading people’s surroundings, the theory says, you can improve their behavior.
— Read on www.city-journal.org/article/broken-windows-policing-crime-malcolm-gladwell