David Halle and Social Explorer's Andrew Beveridge co-edited the urban studies book New York and Los Angeles: The Uncertain Future (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Inspired by a chapter on policing by leading criminologists Jeffrey Fagan (Columbia University) and John McDonald (University of Pennsylvania), the editors, along with Sydney Beveridge, take a closer look at the consequences of the recent New York mayoral race.

Bill Bratton on Both Coasts

Originally published on the Oxford University Press blog (12/24/2013)

Incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has just chosen Bill Bratton as the city’s Police Commissioner. Bratton returns to the top post he occupied from 1994 to 1996 where he played a critical role in police reform in New York, and then as Los Angeles Police Commissioner from 2002 to 2009. Bratton’s stint in Los Angeles is a key reason why community-police relations there seem in better shape than New York’s. Bratton achieved this in Los Angeles while also presiding over a massive drop in crime. It is this apparent ability both to reduce crime and improve community-police relations that will now be tested in New York where outgoing mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly argue that their Stop and Frisk policy, which critics argue has alienated many in the black and Latino community, is vital for keeping crime low…

Bill Bratton, April 2012. Photo by Policy Exchange. CC 2.0 via Wikimedia.

Visit the Oxford University Press blog to read the full post about Bratton's experiences as police commissioner in LA and NY, the COMPSTAT program, the controversial stop and frisk policy, and the future of policing in New York.