Many of the best parts of America's history would have been impossible without police. All the freedoms we enjoy - freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear - sit on a foundation of public safety.
— William Bratton
I was still a recruit in the Boston Police Academy when I attended my first police funeral. It was September 28, 1970. I remember it still.
I've spent my life in the police profession, and I'm proud of that. But I am also very cognizant of the profession's limitations, its potential for abuse, and its potential negative impact.
You have to bare your fangs once in a while.
Slavery, our country's original sin, sat on a foundation codified by laws enforced by police, by slave-catchers.
No place is unpoliceable; no crime is immune to better enforcement efforts.
It's an unfortunate fact that in the male black population, a very significant percentage of them, more so than whites or other minority candidates, because of convictions, prison records, are never going to be hired by a police department. That's a reality. That's not a byproduct of stop-and-frisk.
Race is something that's always haunted American policing.
American history and the black experience are inextricable. And both are inextricable from policing. Far more often than not, that's been a good thing.
If an African-American or a recent immigrant - or anyone else, for that matter - can't feel secure walking into a police station or up to a police officer to report a crime, because of a fear that they're not going to be treated well, then everything else that we promise is on a shaky foundation.
I like having ambitious people around me. I could care less if they want my job.
I have a temper, and it can flare from time to time, but as I've gotten older and more experienced, I think I use it in a controlled way. Oftentimes, I'm acting.
Cops have been complaining about morale since police forces were created. I used to complain about it a lot when I was a young cop.
If there's one crime for which there has to be a certainty of punishment, it is gun violence.
Some cops I don't like - the corrupt, the brutal.
Quality-of-life policing is based on probable cause - an officer has witnessed a crime personally or has a witness to the crime.
We all have a fundamental right to live free from fear, free from crime, and free from disorder - but while we share that right, we also share the duty to secure it.
Policing has to be done compassionately and consistently. You cannot police differently in Harlem than you're policing downtown. The same laws must apply. The same procedures must be employed. Certain areas at certain times may have more significant crime and require more police presence or more assertiveness, but it has to be balanced.
Broken-windows enforcement is really about controlling behavior to such an extent you change it: If you deal with the little things, you can keep them from going into the big things. Zero tolerance implies zealotry. It's oppressive. And it's not achievable. You're never going to be in a position to eliminate all crime.
You cannot police a community without effectively working with the community.
Stop-and-frisk is not something that you can stop. It is an absolutely basic tool of American policing. It would be like asking a doctor to give an examination to you without using his stethoscope.
Clearly, a large number of people who shouldn't have firearms actually apply through the process and obtain firearms.
I disliked everything about the '60s.
