Words matter. These are the best William Bratton Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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.
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.
Race is something that’s always haunted American policing.
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.
You cannot police a community without effectively working with the community.
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.
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.
You have to bare your fangs once in a while.
Some cops I don’t like – the corrupt, the brutal.
I disliked everything about the ’60s.
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.
Slavery, our country’s original sin, sat on a foundation codified by laws enforced by police, by slave-catchers.
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.
No place is unpoliceable; no crime is immune to better enforcement efforts.
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.
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.
I like having ambitious people around me. I could care less if they want my job.
If there’s one crime for which there has to be a certainty of punishment, it is gun violence.
Quality-of-life policing is based on probable cause – an officer has witnessed a crime personally or has a witness to the crime.
