William J. Bratton
No. 21562 William Bratton
Notes from Wikipedia
Born on October 6, 1947, Bratton is a native of Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up on Hecla Street, off Adams in the Meeting House Hill Section of Dorchester. He attended Boston Technical High School, graduating in 1965. From there, he served in the Military Police Corps of the United States Armey during the Vietnam War, returning to Boston in 1970 to start a career in the Boston Police Department. He quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant, and in 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 911 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. In 1990, he was appointed Chief of Police of the New York City Transit Police. Bratton was Superintendent in Chief of the Boston Police Department from 1991 until 1993, when he became that city’s 34th Police Commissioner. He holds the Department’s highest award for valor.
In 1994, William Bratton was appointed the 38th Commissioner of the New York City Police Department by Mayor rudolph W. Giuliani. He had success in this position, and introduced the Compstat system of tracking crimes, which proved successful in reducing crime in New York City and is still used to this day. A new tax surcharge enabled the training and deployment of around 5,000 new better-educated police officers, police decision-making was devolved to precinct level, and a backlog of 50,000 unserved warrants was cleared. The CompStat real-time police intelligence computer system was effectively introduced and integrated into police working. Police numbers were further boosted in 1995 when New York’s housing and transit police were merged into the New York Police Department. Bratton left the job in 1996 after alleged personal conflicts with Giuliani.
In 1996, Bratton was featured in a business case prepared by James L. Heskett and published by Harvard Business School (Ref 9-396-293). Bratton’s efforts to effectively turn around the New York City Police Department is used by many business schools as a tool for teaching organizational design and change.
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. There are alternative explanations for New York City’s precipitous drop in crime — such as an improving economy, the change in availability of cheap crack cocaine, and population trends that resulted in fewer teen males — that suggest the dramatic improvement in quality of life in New York did not result through changes in police managerial policy alone.
Bratton then worked as a private consultant with Kroll Associates, also known as LAPD’s Independent Monitor, until his appointment by Mayor of Los Angeles James Hahn as the LAPD’s 54th Chief of Police in October 2002. Bratton’s predecessor, Bernard Parks, and many others have criticized Bratton for relaxing hiring standards, allowing candidates with minor drug use in their past to join the LAPD. Bratton has also been criticized with his vacation schedule. He was out of town for a full third of the year in 2005. Bratton has also been criticized for his handling of the Los Angeles May Day mêlée.
On June 19, 2007, the LA Police Commission reappointed Police Chief William Bratton to a second five-year term. The timing of the re-appointment, immediately following the MacArthur Park media/police abuse incident, sparked sharp criticism and accusations of corruption in the process that was the focus of a Full Disclosure Video News Blog [1] featuring media personality Xavier Hermosillo, a former LAPD Disciplinary Hearing Officer.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Law Enforcement from the University of Massachusetts and was a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Bratton is married to attorney and Court TV analyst Rikki Kileman, and has one son, David, from a prior marriage. Bratton was also formerly married to attorney and newscaster Cheryl Fiandaca.