The Chronicle: Colloquy: Responses

While there is no question that there are great benefits to society when "broken windows" are tended to, that is not the issue that should concern criminal justice professionals. The only issue that matters in this debate is whether combating decay has a correlation with a drop in the crime rate. While the great spineless "blob" of police administrators would swear that fighting urban blight over the past decade has somehow reduced crime, there is little evidence to support this. In a booming economy, with shrinking populations of teenagers, street crime rates should wane regardless of policing methods employed. Police officials are laughably predictable in claiming credit for any drop in the crime rate, while pointing the finger at the economy and demographics for any rise in crime. The "flavor of the month" in policing for the past few years has been "aggressive policing," zero tolerance of those "broken windows." The Top Cops boast that thry are responsible for the crime drop. Really? In two years--when the recession is in full bloom--something tells me that words like "economy" and "demographics" will be all we hear from their lips--again.

: -- Fred McQuiggan, Sgt., Philadelphia Police (posted 2/6, 9:35 a.m., U.S. Eastern time)

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