Bratton

• Zero tolerance policy in New York

  The principles of 'broken window' theory were applied in New York by William Bratton with Kelling as his advisor. The 'zero tolerance' approach went through three wave:
• First wave - subway graffiti

  • This was the focus between 1984 and 1990
  • A cleaning station was set up in the Bronx to ensure that all subway carriages with graffiti on them were cleaned up: they would let kids spend three nights painting murals on the subway carriages and would then use rollers to paint over them
• Second wave - subway fare-dodging

  • From 1990 to 1994 the focus was placed on fare-dodging
  • Teams of up to ten police officers in plain clothes were assigned to subway stations that were particularly prone to fare-dodging and a city bus was turned into a rolling police station to speed up the processing of those who had been arrested
  • Checks were run on all those arrested and this showed that 1 in 7 had an outstanding warrant for a previous crime while 1 in 20 were carrying a weapon of some sort
• Third wave - quality of life crimes

  • From 1994 attention shifted to 'squeegee men' who demanded payment for washing car windows, as well as people who were drunk in public or who urinated in the street