The Profession Quotes

“First, I would emphasize the importance of the police. We are an essential element of democracy and because of our centrality and policing’s checkered racial history we need to pay strong attention to our system of accountability and control. The processes of selection, training, and evaluation must be improved throughout the country. Increased diversity should be a stated goal. We are no longer a monolith. I encourage all candidates to enter and bring their perspectives to the profession. In the age of heightened technology, I would mandate the development of a “color-blind” algorithm system that would determine whether releasing a suspect was safe based on their arrest history, on whether they had committed crimes while on release from previous arrests, on whether those crimes were violent, and if so how many. I would encourage the creation of a scoring system that would tell us that we are releasing someone into the public who has statistically proven that he presents a real danger to his fellow citizens and neighbors. And in those cases where people were deemed a danger to the community, I would expedite their trials. I would return discretion to the officers as to when to issue a DAT summons or make an arrest. I would lobby to reengineer the bail law to give judges the discretion to hold suspects they determine are dangerous to the public. No more double-shift rapists. New York is the only state in which judges do not have that power. I would have the prosecutors resume prosecuting the crimes that the neighborhoods are complaining about. I would lobby for a law that says if a person is resisting arrest and an officer restrains them in a manner that has been sanctioned by the police department as safe, and in which he or she has been trained, the officer is not subject to arrest. I would continue and improve neighborhood policing.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“Ray Kelly told Linder, “You want to reduce crime? I can reduce crime. You give me fifty men and suspend the Constitution, I’ll reduce crime.” We would not be following that path.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“Cops are idealists wrapped in a shell of cynicism. The nature of the work requires self-protection: gallows humor in the face of horrible things; mistrust in the face of lies from suspects and even victims on the one side, and sometimes, they feel, from the bosses on the other.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“Why do we always lose the good ones?” Jon answered, “Because it’s the law of averages.” Most cops are good people.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“During my first term as NYPD commissioner, Sharpton had functioned largely as a sharp-tongued publicity-seeking political gadfly,”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“Bloomberg allowed Commissioner Kelly a lot of autonomy to make law enforcement decisions. There’s good reason for this: operational choices and even strategic plans are better when they’re based on objective conditions and free of politics.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“Every crisis is an opportunity.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“In times of crisis I find it is best to be completely transparent. You lose your credibility at the first inkling of making excuses. Take it, be prepared to be savaged, and have a plan for moving forward.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“You’re kidding me. Someone can get killed in their division and they are at home asleep and hear about it the next day?” I was appalled. This businesslike attitude signified that nobody cared about the lives that were lost, often Black and brown lives. The community was being denigrated. But when someone gets shot in the middle of the night and the captain jumps out of bed to get there, the troops hear it loud and clear: “This matters. This life matters. These people who are being killed matter.” The level of accountability rises, and officers are made to understand that there are expectations, not simply, “Yeah, somebody got shot in South LA. Just another dead body.” It reverberates through the organization.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“Personal money is important, but most people come to work to do a good job; they want to succeed and they want their organization to succeed. When police officers—when any workers—are presented with elements that enhance their ability to get results, it produces very positive results.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America

“Mayor Hahn wanted to be informed about promotions and transfers, but he never involved himself in the process. Even in high-profile discipline cases, he felt it was the chief’s responsibility, not his, and stayed out of them. I appreciated both his way of doing business and the confidence he showed in me and the department.”
― Bill Bratton, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America