William Bratton

William Joseph "Bill" Bratton CBE (born October 6, 1947) is an American law enforcement officer, businessman who served two terms as the New York City Police Commissioner (2014–2016 and 1994–1996). He has previously served as the Commissioner of the Boston Police Department (BPD) (1993–1994) and Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) (2002–2009).

Bratton began his police career at the Boston Police Department before becoming Police Commissioner in New York City, where his quality-of-life policy has been credited with reducing petty and violent crime. He moved to the Los Angeles Police Department in 2002 reforming the police after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and crime was reduced.

Bratton's policing style is influenced by the broken windows theory, a criminological theory of the norm-setting and signalling effect of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social behavior. He advocates having an ethnically diverse police force representative of the population, maintaining a strong relationship with the law-abiding population, tackling police corruption, being tough on gangs and having a strict no-tolerance of anti-social behavior.

Bratton was approached by British Prime Minister David Cameron to become the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner in July 2011, but this was blocked by the Home Office on the grounds that said commissioner must be a British citizen with experience and knowledge of the United Kingdom's laws. Bratton instead was offered an advisor role to the British government, which he accepted in August 2011.

In January 2014 Bratton returned to the post of Police Commissioner in New York City, and stepped down again in September 2016.

Early life and education
Bratton is from the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Boston Technical High School, graduating in 1965. From there, he served in the Military Police Corps of the United States Army during the Vietnam War.

Boston
Bratton returned to Boston in 1970 to start a police career in the Boston Police Department, and was sworn in as an officer in October 1970. He was promoted to sergeant in July 1975 and to lieutenant in March 1978. In October 1980, at the age of 32 and ten years after his appointment to the BPD, Bratton was named as the youngest-ever Executive Superintendent of the Boston Police, the department's second highest post. He was dismissed as executive superintendent after he told a journalist that his goal was to be the Police Commissioner. He was reassigned to the position of Inspector of Bureaus, a sinecure which was responsible for liaison with minority and LGBTQ communities. He was later brought back into police headquarters to handle labor relations and 9-1-1 related issues.

Between 1983 and 1986 Bratton was Chief of Police for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, following which he became Superintendent of Boston's Metropolitan District Commission Police. Bratton was Superintendent in Chief of the Boston Police Department from 1992 until 1993, then he became that city's 34th Police Commissioner. He holds the Department's highest award for valor.

New York City
Bratton became the chief of the New York City Transit Police in 1990. In 1994, Bratton was appointed the 38th Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) by Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He cooperated with Giuliani in putting the controversial broken windows theory into practice. He introduced the CompStat system of tracking crimes in New York City. Critics have argued that CompStat has created perverse incentives for officers to allow crimes to go unreported, and has encouraged police brutality, citing that complaints by citizens that involved incidents where no arrest was made or summons was issued more than doubled during the Giuliani administration.

Bratton resigned in 1996, while under investigation by the Corporation Counsel for the propriety of a book deal that he signed while in office as well as accepting multiple unauthorized trips from corporations and individuals. These offenses were generally considered minor. Front and center were alleged personal conflicts with Giuliani, partly due to Giuliani's opposition to some of Bratton's reforms and partly due to Giuliani's belief that Bratton was getting more credit for the reduction in crime than Giuliani.

The experiences of Bratton and New York Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Maple were used as the inspiration of the television series The District.

Los Angeles
Bratton worked as a private consultant with Kroll Associates, also known as LAPD's Independent Monitor, until his appointment by the Mayor of Los Angeles James Hahn as the LAPD's 54th Chief of Police in October 2002. Bratton was one of three candidates recommended to Hahn by the Los Angeles Police Commission under Commission President Rick J. Caruso. Under Bratton's tenure, crime within the city dropped for six consecutive years.

On June 19, 2007, the L.A. Police Commission reappointed Bratton to a second five-year term, the first reappointment of an LAPD chief in almost twenty years.

Bratton has been criticized for his extensive travel; in 2005, he was out of town for a full third of the year on both official and personal business.

In March 2009, Councilman Herb Wesson proposed an amendment to the City Charter, allowing Bratton to serve a third consecutive term as Police Chief.

On September 11, 2009, he was awarded with the honorary title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II "in recognition of his work to promote cooperation between US and UK police throughout his distinguished career". On 12 August 2011, Bratton said he was in talks with the British government to become an adviser on controlling the violence that had affected London the prior week. He said he received a phone call from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, and that he would continue speaking with British officials to formalize an agreement. Cameron initially wanted to appoint Bratton Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis of London, but was overruled by Home Secretary Theresa May, who pointed out that only a British citizen was allowed to run the Service.

Oakland
On December 27, 2012, he was hired as a consultant for the city of Oakland, California.

Return to New York City
On December 5, 2013, New York City mayor-elect Bill de Blasio named Bratton as New York City's new Police Commissioner to replace Raymond Kelly. The New York Times reported that at Bratton's swearing in on January 2, 2014, the new Police Commissioner praised his predecessor Raymond Kelly, but also signaled his intention to strike a more conciliatory tone with ordinary New Yorkers who had become disillusioned with policing in the city: "We will all work hard to identify why is it that so many in this city do not feel good about this department that has done so much to make them safe – what has it been about our activities that have made so many alienated?" He stepped down in 2016.

Business
Bratton co-founded and served as CEO of Bratton Technologies, a venture backed company that operates BlueLine, a global law enforcement professional network modeled after LinkedIn.

After stepping down from his post in Los Angeles, in 2009, he moved back to New York City to take a position with private international security firm Altegrity Risk International. He became the chairman of Kroll, a corporate investigations and risk consulting firm based in New York City on September 16, 2010. In November 9, 2012, Bratton stepped down as Chairman and was retained by Kroll as a Senior Adviser.

Bratton joined Crest Advisory on 5 November 2012, a company that advises prospective police and crime commissioners (PCCs), criminal justice agencies and the security sector.

In 2010 he was sworn in as a new member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Policing style
Since 1990 in New York City, Bratton adopted a zero tolerance policing policy. This manner of policing has won both plaudits and criticism, but the implementation of zero tolerance policy coincided with a reduction of petty and serious crime in New York City by 2001.

Bratton has stated that racial tensions and distrust of the police are hindrances to reducing crime. Bratton's solution in Los Angeles and New York City was to make police forces more ethnically diverse and "reflective of the ethnic make-up of their cities".

Memoir
In 1998, Random House published his memoir Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic, written with co-author Peter Knobler. It was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Personal life
Bratton holds a Bachelor of Science in Law Enforcement from the University of Massachusetts Boston and was a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Bratton has been married four times. He is currently married to attorney and TruTV analyst Rikki Klieman, and has one son, David, from a prior marriage. Bratton was previously married to attorney and Boston Police spokeswoman and newscaster Cheryl Fiandaca.

Bratton addressed the Roger Williams University graduating class at the May 22, 2010 commencement ceremony and also received an honorary degree during the ceremony. He also received an honorary degree from New York Institute of Technology.