“We have a generation of police officers that were pointed in one direction—we’re now trying to point them in a different direction and that’s the challenge.”
Recent tragic incidents involving the New York City Police Department (NYPD)—including the summer 2014 death of Eric Garner, who was being arrested on Staten Island, and the autumn 2014 death of Akai Gurley, shot accidentally by a young police officer in a housing project in Brooklyn—have reinvigorated police critics, especially in the context of a broader national discussion about crime and race prompted by events in Ferguson, Missouri.
New Yorkers across all races support “broken windows” policing, but say police brutality is a a serious problem, according to a new poll. Broken windows policing is the theory that cracking down on smaller crimes can prevent bigger crimes in a community.