Areas of Practice
BROKEN WINDOWS THEORY AND LAPD CHIEF WILLIAM BRATTON
Why crime is down in Los Angeles.
An Article by Criminal Defense Attorney Jeffery K. Rubenstein
March 7, 2006
Crime is down in Los Angeles. There is no denying it. Los Angeles in 2006 is safer and less crime ridden following multi-year trend of falling crime rates. According to LAPD crime statistics, as of the end of February 2006, violent crime has dropped a whopping 28.5% over the prior two year period. Property crimes are down 25.1% over the same two year period.
It is important to not just recognize the decline in crime, but to explore and understand the possible causes for this positive decline. This article will explore the declining trend and the effect of LAPD Police Chief William Bratton’s Broken Windows theory and its effect on criminal activity and the quality of life in the city.
Over the past twenty years, until the recent declines, crime in Los Angeles had steadily been on the rise. A good year, in that period, occurred when crime was only up slightly, or stayed relatively even. If crime was down by even a few percentage points, law enforcement professionals heralded a successful year.
Three years ago, a trip around Los Angeles after dark was extremely haphazard. Venice was dangerous, Downtown was hostile, and Hollywood was crazy, filled with cross-dressing prostitutes and crack dealers. No self-respecting citizen would drive through these areas, much less venture forth on foot.
Three years ago, I was the victim of a violent crime when two masked and armed gunman held up at gunpoint my girlfriend and me in a Culver City parking lot at 8:00 p.m. on a Friday night. I was placed face down on the pavement with a gun barrel pressed against the back of my head. It was a terrifying experience, to say the least.
I was afraid to go out, and the irony of my being a criminal defense lawyer did not escape me. My girlfriend wondered if these unidentified robbers would be my future clients. I was not amused. I decided that I would no longer represent individuals charged with such violent crimes.
I had long been interested in crime, its causes, and the solutions to it. As a criminal defense lawyer, a student of the law, and a teacher of Public Administration and Juvenile Justice at National University, I had studied and taught theories of crime and crime prevention. I found one of the most counter-intuitive and interesting theories to be the Broken Windows Theory. LAPD Police Chief William Bratton, a proponent of this theory, has implemented it in Los Angeles.
This theory was interesting and controversial because it seemingly contradicted logic and common sense. Logic and common sense would dictate that if murder, rape, robbery and burglaries are on the rise, as they were in Los Angeles in the 1990s, then police should focus on combating those crimes. The policy was attack violent and serious crime head-on by throwing enough resources and police manpower at them and then d those crimes will decrease. Broken Windows Theory takes a different approach.
Broken Windows was an article that noted criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling published in the March 1982 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. The article presented a novel theory. It maintained that if a window on a street was broken and left without repair, that people on that street would assume that nobody cares and soon the rest of the street would come into disrepair, more windows would be broken, graffiti and trash would appear, and the street would become a “bad” block.
It further argues that criminals would feel welcome on a street with literal and figurative broken windows and would start spending time and committing crimes there; after all, nobody cares. The criminals will realize that if people tolerate theft and vandalism, who would be around to stop a mugging or drug dealing? These activities invite further criminal activity, such as weapons violations, which in turn lead to violent crime therefore escalate crime in that area.
The theory states that in order to effectively fight crime we must in essence fix the broken windows first, and then other crime will decrease. The theory calls the broken windows equivalent offenses: “quality of life crimes.” These are obviously crimes that affect the quality of life. Littering, graffiti, and loitering are all “quality of life” crimes. Let’s discuss this further. Are you more likely to litter on a clean street or one that is already strewn with litter? Are you more likely to write your name in wet cement if there are already names written in it?
Let’s give another example. You have two friends whose homes you visit. We will call them Clean Friend and Dirty Friend. Clean Friend’s home is pristine. Everything is well taken care of, in its place. There are fresh flowers in a vase. The place smells of fresh lemons. Dirty Friend’s home is the opposite. It looks like it has never been cleaned. Clothes and trash are strewn everywhere. The furniture looks like it has been walked on, week-old pizza boxes and newspapers are everywhere. The kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes, the trash is overflowing, and there are flies. We must, of course, acknowledge that economic and sociological factors such as education and upbringing are also likely contributors to Clean Friend and Dirty Friends’ conditions, but for this example we will only consider Clean Friend as a fixed window and Dirty Friend as a Broken Window.
It would, at least, appear that Clean Friend cares about himself and his surroundings and that Dirty Friend does not care; let’s go a step further: Whom does Clean Friend allow in his home and what activities does he permit there? What about Dirty Friend? Anyone can come to Dirty Friend’s house because there are probably no rules. Since this type of environment is likely to attract only the “lowest common denominator” of person, there may be other illegal activity going on. Drugs and theft are more likely to occur at Dirty Friend’s house.
Broken Windows Theory, says “Let’s clean up Dirty Friend’s house (and Dirty Friend) and keep it that way and things will get better for him. This may not be easy to accomplish and although this is a bit of a stretch, it roughly approximates the essence of Broken Windows Theory.
On October 3rd, 2002, former LA Mayor Jim Hahn chose former NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton as the new LAPD Police Chief. Bratton is one of the foremost proponents of Broken Windows Theory. He successfully implemented the theory in New York City. There, Bratton had employed BWT and violent crime rapidly declined. Although critics (who will be discussed later) claim the two may not be related, the resulting decrease in crime is hard to ignore. Bratton’s first job was to address the problems on the NY subway system. Crime on the subway was higher then ever before. Violent crimes such as robbery, rape, and murder were common in New York’s underground transportation system. The situation was out of control. Instead of attacking these problems head-on, Bratton decided to implement Broken Windows Theory and directly confront fare beating.
New York City was seeing a staggering loss of revenue because people were jumping over the turnstiles or going through gates held open by vagrants with their hands out. Even though this was rampant, fighting fare-beating made no sense to the police. It was a minor infraction over a small fare. If they arrested someone for this offense it would take hours to book them over a $1.75 fare and the courts, already overflowing with serious offenses would not take these charges too seriously.
Bratton first tackled the subway problem with a plan--a Broken Windows plan. He made a mobile police station in the subway where booking and processing could be handled very quickly. He had police officers arrest every person who did not pay the fare and handcuffed them together on the platform for all to see. It was a modern day version of the old public stocks, designed for maximum public humiliation.
What they found was remarkable. Ten percent of the people processed had warrants; many had weapons or drugs. They were able to arrest many outlaws and serious offenders by focusing on the minor offenses. Something else happened. Once the criminals became aware that the police were there on a regular basis, they started to leave their weapons at home. Toll dodging as well as serious offenses began to decline dramatically on the subways.
When Bratton became New York Police Commissioner, he took the same approach to beggars and the infamous “squeegee men” on the streets. He also cracked down on public intoxication and urination (which probably often went hand-in-hand), which were quality of life crimes. Street crime began to decrease. New York City, under Bratton’s command, became one of the safest major cities in the United States. Bratton attributed this welcome change to Broken Windows Theory.
In the last several years, LAPD Chief William Bratton has implemented Broken Windows Theory here in Los Angeles. Crime has decreased significantly in that period of time. Critics of Broken Windows Theory say that other factors such as a strong economy and record low unemployment, as well as the end of the crack cocaine crises, caused the decline. They also cite aggressive new policing strategies as a cause. Moreover, civil liberties organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have objected to the crackdown on the homeless population in Los Angeles, citing a variety of constitutional objections.
While these critiques may have merit, they are not necessarily out-of-sync with Broken Windows Theory. Aggressive policing, while not a traditional Broken Windows approach, certainly shows that someone cares. Bratton had new recruits implement old-fashioned foot beats in high-risk neighborhoods. The Police Department also installed cameras along Hollywood Blvd. While these are new police tactics, they are also in accordance with Broken Windows Theory because they too show that someone cares.
Life, the economy, and crime all have their cycles. Many factors contribute to these cycles. I am convinced that crime is down in Los Angeles in a large part because of Chief Bratton and Broken Windows Theory. The Los Angeles Sheriffs Department has not implemented Broken Windows Theory and crime has not dropped as sharply in jurisdictions under the control of that law enforcement agency.
Wealth versus poverty and other socio-economic factors always play important roles in the dynamics of any society and a healthy economy and high employment rates have always been statistically related to declining crime rates. Having recognized this, Broken Windows Theory cannot and should not be ignored.
Crime is down in Los Angeles and there are many broken windows that still need to be repaired. There are many ways to repair a broken window; you don’t need to demolish the entire building to accomplish this. Broken Windows Theory can be implemented in our personal lives as well as on a larger scale. It is our job and not someone else’s. I have implemented Broken Windows Theory in my own life by making sure the street is clean in front of my house. When I care and show it through actions, my neighbors care too and the area gets a bit better. Can you implement Broken Windows Theory in your own life?
Jeff Rubenstein is a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor who teaches Public Policy at National University. The Law Offices of Jeffery K. Rubenstein are located at 1849 Sawtelle Blvd. Suite 640 , Los Angeles, CA. 310-477-2100 www.jkrlaw.com, jkrlaw@gmail.com.