August 7, 2004
New York Times on Life in the Fifth Precinct
As I mentioned over on the Scary Blotter, Sunday's NYT has a very long feature article on policing the Fifth Precinct (Chinatown, Little Italy). The article partly focuses on the declining crime rate in that precinct (and the city as a whole), and profiles several officers in that precinct: the captain, a lieutenant, a somewhat seasoned cop, and a rookie.
The article discusses the officers' response to the noticeable lack of violent or serious crimes in the precinct. Violent crime has dropped 70% there since 1993. There has been only 1 murder there this year, as compared to 9 by this time in 1994. This gives the officers a lot of time to focus on community relations and reduce non-violent crimes such as pick-pocketing and selling goods on the sidewalk without a license. The cops have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the declining crime rates: on the one hand, it means they are doing a good job and the city is a safer place. On the other hand, however, it makes their job comparatively boring. After one community meeting at which the most serious problem discussed was a too-loud Mister Softee ice cream truck, some officers lamented the dearth of excitement:
One asked, "What's the world coming to?"
And another answered, "We've got to bring crime back."
Nonetheless, you get the impression from the article that the cops love their jobs and, for the most part, care about the community in which they work.
The dramatic drop in crime is attributed to the NYPD's crime-tracking database, Compstat, which began revolutionizing law enforcement almost as soon as it became active in 1993. The system allows NYPD brass to see trends in crime city-wide and assign resources (i.e., cops) based on those trends. It's impact on the department and the city cannot be understated. The lieutenant profiled in the article almost seems to wish that Compstat would not just report the data, but give orders, too: "Compstat's like religion. It's a really, really good idea, like religion. But you get people involved, and it gets all screwed up." The precinct's captain says he frets about reports of even minor incidents, because he knows his superiors are looking over his shoulder, Compstat reports in hand.
The article implies, although does not directly illustrate, that the other major reason that crime has dropped is the crackdown on quality-of-life crimes, like turnstile-jumping, squeegee men, etc. Compstat and this crackdown work in tandem to keep things calm: Compstat helps keep major crimes down, and this gives the officers more time to deal with petty problems (pickpockets, unlicensed vendors) before an atmosphere of chaos takes over. It might make the life of the officer, and of the city, less interesting, but I think we can all agree that if we had to choose between less crime and more, we'll take less.
The article also delves into the personal and professional lives of four officers, describing how they look at their jobs and what they do when they're not on the job. The lieutenant is a lesbian, struggling to get pregnant; the rookie (Suk Too, pictured above, a 23-year-old woman from China, who I think is my new favorite police officer) talks about what it's like to be a tiny woman among her brawny peers, and how excited she is to be a cop; and the more experienced officer balances his schedule with his golf game, and is hoping for a promotion so he can eventually get on the terrorism task force. Read the article for details.
Online, the article is accompanied by a multimedia slideshow that features some terrific photos of the officers and voice-over narration by the reporter and the officers themselves.
categories:
NYPD,
Trends and Statistics
posted by adm at August 7, 2004 6:51 PM
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