Zero Tolerance

Few topics cause more concern than rising crime. And few remedies have been more talked about, on both sides of the Atlantic, than zero-tolerance policing. When William Bratton was appointed Commissioner of New York Police Department in 1994 crime was perceived to be running out of control. The no-nonsense approach which he developed towards petty crime and incivility, which he believed to be indicators of potentially serious criminal behaviour, became known as 'zero-tolerance policing', and it showed spectacular results. Over three years the crime rate dropped by 37% and the homicide rate by 50 per cent. In the same year that Bratton was made commissioner of NYPD, DCI Ray Mallon became head of crime strategy in Hartlepool. His determination to restore the streets to the decent, law-abiding citizens mirrored Bratton's approach, and had the same results. Reported crimes fell by 27 per cent, with falls of 56 per cent in vehicle thefts and 31 per cent in burglaries.
Chief Constable John Orr's 'spotlight initiative' in Strathclyde is not described as zero tolerance, although it shares some characteristics of the Bratton/Mallon paradigm, and saw reductions in serious crime of nearly ten per cent in its first few months. William Griffiths visited New York to find out which elements of Bratton's approach could be adopted by the Metropolitan Police, and discovered much common ground. However Charles Pollard, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, warns that zero-tolerance policing may have its pitfalls. The fall in crime could be more apparent than real: there may be a limit to the reductions in crime which it can achieve; and it may prove too confrontational to be of long term benefit. In his editor's introduction and in his detailed study (with Ray Mallon) of crime and culture in Hartlepool, Norman Dennis examines the ways in which the changing analysis of, and response to, crime can affect in fundamental ways our conception of what it is to live in a free society. "Worthy of a place in any police library and recommended reading for all." The Police Journal.