I’ve lived in New York City my entire life and seen it go through many changes. The most noticeable is the quality of life. There was a time when crime was a given in the city and every subway train was covered in graffiti and littered with trash. To sum it up, living in NYC could be considered “rough.” That all changed when Bill Bratton became police commissioner and adopted the “Broken Windows” policing policy.
This philosophy was based on an urban sociology book titled, “Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities” by George L. Kelling and Catherine Coles.
The idea is simple and compelling. A broken window–or a littered sidewalk, graffiti, etc. – will harm a neighborhood if not promptly addressed. Left untended, it sends the signal that no one cares about this neighborhood and projects the notion that this is a safe place to litter, break things, vandalize and commit crimes. Criminals can run rampant and rest assured that no one will care enough to stop them. People will get the feeling that this is a safe place to be openly drunk, beg for money, and worse. The philosophy is that these smallest symptoms of antisocial behavior will, left to fester, breed greater and greater crimes.
