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The Profession: A Memoir of Community, Race, and the Arc of Policing in America
“Engaging. . . a remarkably candid account. . . Succeeding as a centrist in public life these days can be an almost impossible task. But centrism in law enforcement may be the most delicate challenge of all. Bratton’s ability to practice it was a startling phenomenon.” – New York Times Book Review
The epic, transformative career of Bill Bratton, legendary police commissioner and police reformer, in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York
When Bill Bratton became a Boston street cop after his return from serving in Vietnam, he was dismayed by the corrupt old guard, and it is fair to say the old guard was dismayed by him, too. But his success fighting crime could not be denied. Propelled by extraordinary results, Bratton had a dazzling rise, and ultimately a dazzling career, becoming the most famous police commissioner of modern times. The Profession is the story of that career in full.
Everywhere he went, Bratton slashed crime rates and professionalized the vocation of the cop. He and his team created the revolutionary program CompStat, the Big Bang of modern data-driven policing. But his career has not been without controversy, and central to the reckoning of The Profession is the fundamental crisis of relations between the Black community and law enforcement; a crisis he now believes has been inflamed by the unforeseen consequences of some well-intentioned policies. Building trust between a police force and the community it is sworn to protect is in many ways, Bratton argues, the first task--without genuine trust in law enforcement to do what is right, little else is possible.
The Profession is both a searching examination of the path of policing over the past fifty years, for good and also for ill, and a master class in transformative leadership. Bill Bratton was never brought into a police department to maintain the status quo; wherever he went--from Boston in the '80s to the New York Police Department in the '90s to Los Angeles after the beating of Rodney King to New York again in the era of unchecked stop-and-frisk--root-and-branch reinvention was the order of the day and he met the challenge. There are few other positions on Earth in which life-and-death stakes combine with intense public scrutiny and turbulent political crosswinds as they do for the police chief of a major American city, even more so after counterterrorism entered the mix in the twenty-first century. Now more than ever, when the role of the police in society is under a microscope like never before, Bill Bratton's authority on the subject of improving law enforcement is profoundly useful. A riveting combination of cop stories and community involvement, The Profession presents not only a fascinating and colorful life at the heights of law-enforcement leadership, but the vision for the future of American policing that we sorely need.
The epic, transformative career of Bill Bratton, legendary police commissioner and police reformer, in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York
When Bill Bratton became a Boston street cop after his return from serving in Vietnam, he was dismayed by the corrupt old guard, and it is fair to say the old guard was dismayed by him, too. But his success fighting crime could not be denied. Propelled by extraordinary results, Bratton had a dazzling rise, and ultimately a dazzling career, becoming the most famous police commissioner of modern times. The Profession is the story of that career in full.
Everywhere he went, Bratton slashed crime rates and professionalized the vocation of the cop. He and his team created the revolutionary program CompStat, the Big Bang of modern data-driven policing. But his career has not been without controversy, and central to the reckoning of The Profession is the fundamental crisis of relations between the Black community and law enforcement; a crisis he now believes has been inflamed by the unforeseen consequences of some well-intentioned policies. Building trust between a police force and the community it is sworn to protect is in many ways, Bratton argues, the first task--without genuine trust in law enforcement to do what is right, little else is possible.
The Profession is both a searching examination of the path of policing over the past fifty years, for good and also for ill, and a master class in transformative leadership. Bill Bratton was never brought into a police department to maintain the status quo; wherever he went--from Boston in the '80s to the New York Police Department in the '90s to Los Angeles after the beating of Rodney King to New York again in the era of unchecked stop-and-frisk--root-and-branch reinvention was the order of the day and he met the challenge. There are few other positions on Earth in which life-and-death stakes combine with intense public scrutiny and turbulent political crosswinds as they do for the police chief of a major American city, even more so after counterterrorism entered the mix in the twenty-first century. Now more than ever, when the role of the police in society is under a microscope like never before, Bill Bratton's authority on the subject of improving law enforcement is profoundly useful. A riveting combination of cop stories and community involvement, The Profession presents not only a fascinating and colorful life at the heights of law-enforcement leadership, but the vision for the future of American policing that we sorely need.
512 pages, Hardcover
Published June 8, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
August 13, 2021
This is THE book to read if you want to understand police in America. Author Bill Bratton has been the police commissioner in NYC and Boston, and the chief of police in Los Angeles. He’s been involved with policing for a very long time and knows the subject inside and out. He addresses changes in policing over the decades, systemic racism, strategic targeting of areas with different crime rates, diversity within the police department, and the challenges of working under different administrations. This is a long book but very accessible. And if you get the audio version, the narration is by the author and the Boston accent makes it even more authentic.
August 6, 2021
This book is an impressive and comprehensive look at both Bratton's remarkable life's work as a law enforcement official in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City, and a summation of his views on American policing and where it can and should go in the 21st century. It's hard to argue with Bratton's fairness and expertise as he lays out what he has done and his prescription for creating the future of American police work. The interesting thing about this book is how Bratton genuinely and honestly takes into account and acknowledges the criticisms of the police with a clear eye; recognizing the abuses and missteps, while also calling out the over reach in some criticism as well. He is intimately committed and aware of both sides of the argument and finds a middle ground that would, if employed, go a long way to addressing community complaints and community safety. I found this book to be immensely readable and engaging. It made me wish Bratton was in the current administration shaping and directing law enforcement policy.
June 9, 2023
This has been added to my list of required reading for police officers. Anyone involved in law enforcement, and anyone who is a critic of law enforcement should read this book and learn from Commissioner Bratton’s experience.
April 11, 2024
When Erik Prince was interviewed on Patrick Bet David��s podcast, he recommended “The Profession” by Stephen Pressfield. Because I am AN IDIOT, I ordered “The Profession” by Bill Bratton and Peter Knobler (2021) and read the whole thing before realizing that I’d gotten the wrong book. Sigh…
Bratton was a police officer for his whole life and rose to several management positions, including Police Commissioner in Boston and NYC and Police Chief in Los Angeles and he talks about that in this book. The book starts off on kind of a sour note, with Bratton airing dirty laundry about the NYPD later in his career. I think that he was trying for a “look at how hard it is to be a police officer! We deserve more respect!” vibe, but to me, the politics and drama were exhausting and I immediately thought “if the whole book is like this, then I’m going to bail on it.”
Fortunately, the best part of the book comes right after that, which covers Bratton’s start in policing in Boston in 1970. I thought the history that was covered was interesting here and some of the details about how policing in America was changed in this era were new to me. For example, the 911 emergency number was rolled out in the 1970s and this resulted in an increased amount of calls to the police. This issue was tackled by taking cops who had previously walked a beat in a specific neighborhood and put them in cars so they could quickly drive anywhere in the city to respond to 911 calls. The higher ups in police liked this arrangement because they could boast about how many calls they were responding to and how quickly, which made them look good to their bosses and the public. Lower-ranked cops, especially younger and more adventurous ones, liked it too because they would rather race around in a fast car, chasing after bad guys than just walk around a neighborhood where, typically, little was going on.
What this resulted in was a one-two punch: first, police that were on foot would typically stop and chat with people in their area and get to know them. This allowed police to know who was who (including troublemakers) in a given area and reduced the “us vs. them” mentality that characterizes modern American police. Cops had far fewer regular, non-confrontational interactions with people when they were placed in cars. Second, those cars were assigned to an entire city instead of one particular neighborhood, further eroding the potential for creating relationships with a particular community.
Much of the middle of the book was kind of dull to me: Bratton rose very quickly through the ranks and began to dictate policy for BPD. He would later work with NY Transit Police (separate from NYPD), LAPD, and then NYPD in his career. He made a number of changes and I’m sure they were significant, but for someone like me who’s never been a cop, the large amounts of detail about administration and protocol were not very interesting.
I’m far from pro-police, though I like to think that I can set my opinions aside and listen to what anyone has to say. My biases probably didn’t help, but I didn’t find myself being convinced by Bratton’s arguments that policing in general, and his ideas in particular, are inherently good. He points out that during his career, 1970 to 2015, that crime in NYC peaked and then fell because of his policies. The problem with this is that this trend happened across America in this timeframe, not just in places where Bratton was calling the shots over the local PD.
Additionally, Bratton seems to have spent so much time in his profession and taken for granted that that profession is such a self-evident good that he’s lost the ability to form arguments that aren’t totally empty. “You can’t get rid of the police! If you did, then there just wouldn’t be any police!” is the gist of most of his arguments; totally factual but totally meaningless.
There’s also the argument that many of Bratton’s policies were driven by fighting ‘disorder’, also known as “Broken Windows” policing. This is the argument that people both want order and cause disorder. What’s the solution? According to Bratton, “police harder”, of course! The issue that one should be able to plainly see is that “the people” include not only those that think that everything from peeing outside to smoking pot is yucky and sinful but also those who do such things and think nothing of it, morally. To side with one of those groups and take for granted that that group is right and those who commit the victimless crimes are wrong can’t be objectively correct, but Bratton’s bias that policing is the solution to all of society’s woes leads him to the conclusion that tweaking police policy is the only path that should be taken.
Bratton discusses extensively how people value feeling safe and don’t care about facts, something that’s unfortunately obvious in America today. Bratton says that they did surveys to find out a) what reduces crime and b) what makes people feel safe and found that those two things aren’t always one and the same. When he had to pick between the two, he seems to have always chosen the feel-good route. This portion of the book confirmed my bias against the typical “someone should do it for me!” big city denizen, not that I needed such. The surveillance-state that Bratton helped build for feel-good reasons also confirmed my desire to never visit NYC; every policy that he outlined, from “stop and frisk” to having cameras and metal detectors everywhere, filled me with horror and disgust.
The writing of the book is fairly easy to read, though it seems that either a good editor took a horrible first draft and barely made it readable or a bad editor just didn’t quite do enough at times. Many quotes from actual people, summaries of conversations, and made-up conversations between hypothetical people (to prove a point) are very weirdly written; I had to reread several of those to figure out exactly what was being said. I can’t help but wonder if Bratton was pulling a Biden and trying to be a gray-haired “hep cat” and not really pulling it off? There was also some police jargon that wasn’t defined and that I had to just pass over, not really knowing what it meant (other jargon was defined, so this wasn’t a consistent problem). The dry subject matter and harping on the same conclusions was what really hurt the readability for me, though.
One of the few insights Bratton gives about himself in this book is how he met his wife:
I met and married a wonderful, smart, accomplished woman, Rikki Klieman. A noted attorney who earned great attention and acclaim as Court TV anchor for the O.J. Simpson trial, Rikki noticed me as she was leaving a breakfast meeting at New York’s Regency Hotel. I kissed her on the cheek and said, “If you were single, I’d marry you.” Soon she was and I did.
Well, that’s kinda weird! He meets a woman by walking up to her and just kissing her? If there’s context missing there, I’d guess that the last sentence in that snippet “yadda-yaddas” over something even more significant (and sinister?). The whole book is full of stories about record-fast promotions and how Bratton keeps getting selected for politically-appointed top positions in various police departments. I choose to assume that Bratton stabbed a few backs and greased a few palms to achieve this rapid rise.
The latter part of the book shows Bratton becoming the rather awkward political animal that is the modern American police administrator, an odd fusion of “woke” and “obey or die” that is kind of comical to see one attempt at balancing. I have seen the word “Latinx” used outside the realm of intentional satire exactly twice in my life, both of them in this book. Hearing this kind of painfully-obvious pandering (by a guy born in Boston ca.1947, no less) seems anything but sincere.
The awkward dance continues with an entire chapter devoted to Eric Garner, a black man who was killed (accidentally?) by the NYPD for selling “loosies” (individual cigarettes without a license). One of the reasons I’m glad I read this book is because it got me thinking about what might be the most sinister angle on the whole woke mindset yet: this whole chapter (and two more that follow) are devoted to driving home the point that “I’m not racist! Neither is the average cop! Really! You gotta believe me!” but what is really important is what’s never addressed: how screwed up is it that a guy was killed for selling smokes to people that wanted to buy them in a way that doth not please The Crown? Killing people for committing a victimless crime is okay, as long as it’s done not-racistly, seems to be Bratton’s mindset and, I fear, one that is embraced by the current powers that be and much of the unthinking masses who lap up whatever’s fed to them by the corporate media.
The focus on race in regards to how American police operate threatens reform until we can get past that red herring. What happened to Eric Garner isn’t worse than what happened to Duncan Lemp or Daniel Shaver (weird how you hadn’t heard of them, right? What do those two have in common with each other that they don’t have in common with Eric Garner or George Floyd?) since their deaths are all horrific. One of my favorite podcasts is “Part of the Problem”, hosted by Dave Smith, who has frequently lamented that the modern anti police brutality movement got called “Black Lives Matter” instead of “Accountability for Killer Cops” or something like that. We’re wasting time by debating whether black lives or all lives matter instead of debating the wisdom and morality of killing people in situations that stem from burnt-out tail lights.
Speaking of victimless crimes, Bratton spends a lot of time bragging about how many guns he had seized and how many owners of guns he had locked up while working for the NYTP and NYPD. Just like “police = inherently good”, Bratton takes for granted that “privately-owned guns = inherently bad”. I’ve always found the anti-gun angle to be especially entertaining to hear from cops, since they also have guns (and really love theirs) but have to somehow stick to the script that defensive firearms use is a myth (in America, firearms are used defensively far more than criminally; look up the FBI uniform crime report for more info) while also assuring the public (who, remember, only wants to feel safe) that the only reason police have firearms is for self-defense. On page 434, Bratton says the quiet part out loud though, when discussing the two Islamic terrorists that got shot at the First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit in Garland, TX:
Both men were killed by a traffic officer who happened to be standing under a nearby shade tree and shot them with his Glock .45 duty pistol. Which is the difference between Texas and New York. Texas is the only place where ISIS can be outgunned at an art show.
(Note: the above is a verbatim quote from the book and I think it shows how awkwardly written it can be at times).
I guess that when Texans carry guns it’s ok but when New Yorkers do it it’s bad because some long-dead bureaucrats said so? Another clumsy dance that Bratton (like all cops) must do is insist that cops aren’t mindless robots who just throw people in cages or kill them because they’re ordered to while also invoking the Nuremberg Defense whenever cops imprison or kill people for doing things that are pretty obviously not worthy of such a punishment.
Bratton is blind to many other things thanks to his devotion to his profession, including the efficacy of the War on Drugs. Bratton acknowledges that cannabis isn’t a harmful drug but insists that it is linked to other, more serious crimes like kidnapping, arson, and murder. Go back in time a century, and this statement would be equally true when discussing alcohol. When an in-demand product is driven into the criminal underworld by bad laws, expect criminals to start providing that product. When there’s no legal recourse for disputes between the providers of said product, expect illegal recourse instead. When the prohibition ends, one should also expect the related lawlessness to end with it, but cannabis decriminalization is never mentioned by Bratton, he only harps on how important it is to go after the reefer madness. Police are the only possible solution! Police even more harder!
The question of who would keep people safe if not for police can be answered by looking at two maps: one that shows areas of the country where people are punished by the police for defending themselves with the most effective tools of self defense (i.e.: concealed firearms) and one that shows the areas of the country that have the highest violent crime rates. As the popular meme says: “they’re the same picture”. People are less likely to choose to be victims when victimhood stops being virtually mandated by government, as we can see from the concealed carry revolution in America that began over 30 years ago, the timeframe in which violent crime peaked and then began declining. Throughout this book, Bratton kept bringing up crime problems and I kept thinking “end the War on Drugs and the War on Guns and this problem would sublimate” but lazy people would rather not take responsibility for their own safety and security, it seems, and so they continue to advocate for laws that cause greater problems than they solve and then complain that the law isn’t being enforced hard enough for them to feel good but that it’s being enforced too hard and causing problems as well.
Overall, the book was mostly either dry and repetitive or predictable and political. I’m not mad that I read it (though I still feel like a doofus for getting the wrong book!) but, man, the author (and policy makers in general) needs to get out of the bubble that he’s lived in for so many decades. The confirmation bias is strong with this one and that makes for a frustrating read.
I think the main takeaway is that as long as the police - and the policed - think it’s the state’s job to both make society safe and also make society feel safe, we’re going to have the situation that we’ve got in America today. Also, as long as we focus on how police do bad things to black people, we’ll ignore that police do bad things, period. This will result only in our anger being directed at one another instead of the powers that be who create - and benefit from - such a situation.
Bratton was a police officer for his whole life and rose to several management positions, including Police Commissioner in Boston and NYC and Police Chief in Los Angeles and he talks about that in this book. The book starts off on kind of a sour note, with Bratton airing dirty laundry about the NYPD later in his career. I think that he was trying for a “look at how hard it is to be a police officer! We deserve more respect!” vibe, but to me, the politics and drama were exhausting and I immediately thought “if the whole book is like this, then I’m going to bail on it.”
Fortunately, the best part of the book comes right after that, which covers Bratton’s start in policing in Boston in 1970. I thought the history that was covered was interesting here and some of the details about how policing in America was changed in this era were new to me. For example, the 911 emergency number was rolled out in the 1970s and this resulted in an increased amount of calls to the police. This issue was tackled by taking cops who had previously walked a beat in a specific neighborhood and put them in cars so they could quickly drive anywhere in the city to respond to 911 calls. The higher ups in police liked this arrangement because they could boast about how many calls they were responding to and how quickly, which made them look good to their bosses and the public. Lower-ranked cops, especially younger and more adventurous ones, liked it too because they would rather race around in a fast car, chasing after bad guys than just walk around a neighborhood where, typically, little was going on.
What this resulted in was a one-two punch: first, police that were on foot would typically stop and chat with people in their area and get to know them. This allowed police to know who was who (including troublemakers) in a given area and reduced the “us vs. them” mentality that characterizes modern American police. Cops had far fewer regular, non-confrontational interactions with people when they were placed in cars. Second, those cars were assigned to an entire city instead of one particular neighborhood, further eroding the potential for creating relationships with a particular community.
Much of the middle of the book was kind of dull to me: Bratton rose very quickly through the ranks and began to dictate policy for BPD. He would later work with NY Transit Police (separate from NYPD), LAPD, and then NYPD in his career. He made a number of changes and I’m sure they were significant, but for someone like me who’s never been a cop, the large amounts of detail about administration and protocol were not very interesting.
I’m far from pro-police, though I like to think that I can set my opinions aside and listen to what anyone has to say. My biases probably didn’t help, but I didn’t find myself being convinced by Bratton’s arguments that policing in general, and his ideas in particular, are inherently good. He points out that during his career, 1970 to 2015, that crime in NYC peaked and then fell because of his policies. The problem with this is that this trend happened across America in this timeframe, not just in places where Bratton was calling the shots over the local PD.
Additionally, Bratton seems to have spent so much time in his profession and taken for granted that that profession is such a self-evident good that he’s lost the ability to form arguments that aren’t totally empty. “You can’t get rid of the police! If you did, then there just wouldn’t be any police!” is the gist of most of his arguments; totally factual but totally meaningless.
There’s also the argument that many of Bratton’s policies were driven by fighting ‘disorder’, also known as “Broken Windows” policing. This is the argument that people both want order and cause disorder. What’s the solution? According to Bratton, “police harder”, of course! The issue that one should be able to plainly see is that “the people” include not only those that think that everything from peeing outside to smoking pot is yucky and sinful but also those who do such things and think nothing of it, morally. To side with one of those groups and take for granted that that group is right and those who commit the victimless crimes are wrong can’t be objectively correct, but Bratton’s bias that policing is the solution to all of society’s woes leads him to the conclusion that tweaking police policy is the only path that should be taken.
Bratton discusses extensively how people value feeling safe and don’t care about facts, something that’s unfortunately obvious in America today. Bratton says that they did surveys to find out a) what reduces crime and b) what makes people feel safe and found that those two things aren’t always one and the same. When he had to pick between the two, he seems to have always chosen the feel-good route. This portion of the book confirmed my bias against the typical “someone should do it for me!” big city denizen, not that I needed such. The surveillance-state that Bratton helped build for feel-good reasons also confirmed my desire to never visit NYC; every policy that he outlined, from “stop and frisk” to having cameras and metal detectors everywhere, filled me with horror and disgust.
The writing of the book is fairly easy to read, though it seems that either a good editor took a horrible first draft and barely made it readable or a bad editor just didn’t quite do enough at times. Many quotes from actual people, summaries of conversations, and made-up conversations between hypothetical people (to prove a point) are very weirdly written; I had to reread several of those to figure out exactly what was being said. I can’t help but wonder if Bratton was pulling a Biden and trying to be a gray-haired “hep cat” and not really pulling it off? There was also some police jargon that wasn’t defined and that I had to just pass over, not really knowing what it meant (other jargon was defined, so this wasn’t a consistent problem). The dry subject matter and harping on the same conclusions was what really hurt the readability for me, though.
One of the few insights Bratton gives about himself in this book is how he met his wife:
I met and married a wonderful, smart, accomplished woman, Rikki Klieman. A noted attorney who earned great attention and acclaim as Court TV anchor for the O.J. Simpson trial, Rikki noticed me as she was leaving a breakfast meeting at New York’s Regency Hotel. I kissed her on the cheek and said, “If you were single, I’d marry you.” Soon she was and I did.
Well, that’s kinda weird! He meets a woman by walking up to her and just kissing her? If there’s context missing there, I’d guess that the last sentence in that snippet “yadda-yaddas” over something even more significant (and sinister?). The whole book is full of stories about record-fast promotions and how Bratton keeps getting selected for politically-appointed top positions in various police departments. I choose to assume that Bratton stabbed a few backs and greased a few palms to achieve this rapid rise.
The latter part of the book shows Bratton becoming the rather awkward political animal that is the modern American police administrator, an odd fusion of “woke” and “obey or die” that is kind of comical to see one attempt at balancing. I have seen the word “Latinx” used outside the realm of intentional satire exactly twice in my life, both of them in this book. Hearing this kind of painfully-obvious pandering (by a guy born in Boston ca.1947, no less) seems anything but sincere.
The awkward dance continues with an entire chapter devoted to Eric Garner, a black man who was killed (accidentally?) by the NYPD for selling “loosies” (individual cigarettes without a license). One of the reasons I’m glad I read this book is because it got me thinking about what might be the most sinister angle on the whole woke mindset yet: this whole chapter (and two more that follow) are devoted to driving home the point that “I’m not racist! Neither is the average cop! Really! You gotta believe me!” but what is really important is what’s never addressed: how screwed up is it that a guy was killed for selling smokes to people that wanted to buy them in a way that doth not please The Crown? Killing people for committing a victimless crime is okay, as long as it’s done not-racistly, seems to be Bratton’s mindset and, I fear, one that is embraced by the current powers that be and much of the unthinking masses who lap up whatever’s fed to them by the corporate media.
The focus on race in regards to how American police operate threatens reform until we can get past that red herring. What happened to Eric Garner isn’t worse than what happened to Duncan Lemp or Daniel Shaver (weird how you hadn’t heard of them, right? What do those two have in common with each other that they don’t have in common with Eric Garner or George Floyd?) since their deaths are all horrific. One of my favorite podcasts is “Part of the Problem”, hosted by Dave Smith, who has frequently lamented that the modern anti police brutality movement got called “Black Lives Matter” instead of “Accountability for Killer Cops” or something like that. We’re wasting time by debating whether black lives or all lives matter instead of debating the wisdom and morality of killing people in situations that stem from burnt-out tail lights.
Speaking of victimless crimes, Bratton spends a lot of time bragging about how many guns he had seized and how many owners of guns he had locked up while working for the NYTP and NYPD. Just like “police = inherently good”, Bratton takes for granted that “privately-owned guns = inherently bad”. I’ve always found the anti-gun angle to be especially entertaining to hear from cops, since they also have guns (and really love theirs) but have to somehow stick to the script that defensive firearms use is a myth (in America, firearms are used defensively far more than criminally; look up the FBI uniform crime report for more info) while also assuring the public (who, remember, only wants to feel safe) that the only reason police have firearms is for self-defense. On page 434, Bratton says the quiet part out loud though, when discussing the two Islamic terrorists that got shot at the First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit in Garland, TX:
Both men were killed by a traffic officer who happened to be standing under a nearby shade tree and shot them with his Glock .45 duty pistol. Which is the difference between Texas and New York. Texas is the only place where ISIS can be outgunned at an art show.
(Note: the above is a verbatim quote from the book and I think it shows how awkwardly written it can be at times).
I guess that when Texans carry guns it’s ok but when New Yorkers do it it’s bad because some long-dead bureaucrats said so? Another clumsy dance that Bratton (like all cops) must do is insist that cops aren’t mindless robots who just throw people in cages or kill them because they’re ordered to while also invoking the Nuremberg Defense whenever cops imprison or kill people for doing things that are pretty obviously not worthy of such a punishment.
Bratton is blind to many other things thanks to his devotion to his profession, including the efficacy of the War on Drugs. Bratton acknowledges that cannabis isn’t a harmful drug but insists that it is linked to other, more serious crimes like kidnapping, arson, and murder. Go back in time a century, and this statement would be equally true when discussing alcohol. When an in-demand product is driven into the criminal underworld by bad laws, expect criminals to start providing that product. When there’s no legal recourse for disputes between the providers of said product, expect illegal recourse instead. When the prohibition ends, one should also expect the related lawlessness to end with it, but cannabis decriminalization is never mentioned by Bratton, he only harps on how important it is to go after the reefer madness. Police are the only possible solution! Police even more harder!
The question of who would keep people safe if not for police can be answered by looking at two maps: one that shows areas of the country where people are punished by the police for defending themselves with the most effective tools of self defense (i.e.: concealed firearms) and one that shows the areas of the country that have the highest violent crime rates. As the popular meme says: “they’re the same picture”. People are less likely to choose to be victims when victimhood stops being virtually mandated by government, as we can see from the concealed carry revolution in America that began over 30 years ago, the timeframe in which violent crime peaked and then began declining. Throughout this book, Bratton kept bringing up crime problems and I kept thinking “end the War on Drugs and the War on Guns and this problem would sublimate” but lazy people would rather not take responsibility for their own safety and security, it seems, and so they continue to advocate for laws that cause greater problems than they solve and then complain that the law isn’t being enforced hard enough for them to feel good but that it’s being enforced too hard and causing problems as well.
Overall, the book was mostly either dry and repetitive or predictable and political. I’m not mad that I read it (though I still feel like a doofus for getting the wrong book!) but, man, the author (and policy makers in general) needs to get out of the bubble that he’s lived in for so many decades. The confirmation bias is strong with this one and that makes for a frustrating read.
I think the main takeaway is that as long as the police - and the policed - think it’s the state’s job to both make society safe and also make society feel safe, we’re going to have the situation that we’ve got in America today. Also, as long as we focus on how police do bad things to black people, we’ll ignore that police do bad things, period. This will result only in our anger being directed at one another instead of the powers that be who create - and benefit from - such a situation.
September 19, 2023
I listened to the Audible audiobook version, which is kind of important because most of the drawbacks I have with this audiobook are due to Bill Bratton's decision to be his own narrator. Bratton has a very thick Boston accent and it's took a chapter or two to get used to his version of English. It also didn't seem like he was using the best quality audio recording equipment, so the actual sound of the recording seemed worse. Therefore I recommend you read the physical book rather than listen to the audiobook.
That being said, the actual content of the book is fascinating. Bratton's career spans three of the US's largest metropolitan police departments. It's possible that he's seen and done it all as a cop, during the best and worst times in policing across decades of American history. The knowledge imparted in this book is provided from that lifetime of police work.
I've gone through undergrad and graduate level education in criminal justice. Bratton's analysis of policing tools and techniques are insightful and accurate. Listening to this book actually reminded me of my instruction from my own professors who were former cops themselves. The reader will form a critical understanding of police operations, law enforcement culture, and what works and doesn't work when fighting crime and disorder. I can certainly vouch for most of Bratton's work, though I do have disagreements with him on the effects and unintended consequences behind specific policies like qualified immunity. I was also disappointed he didn't seem to address certain other issues but perhaps that was because he, like so many across the country, seems to think that the criminal justice system and policing is broken. I agree, and Bratton does a good job at analyzing the fundamental issues behind what is causing the current rise in violent and non-violent crime across the country.
While the biography of his life may guide the reader through a history of American criminal justice from the 70s to today, the final few chapters analyze the upheaval of post pandemic policy and culture. This is where the biggest revelations of Bratton's personal politics shine through. Just from the reviews alone, it is clear Bratton is centrist, not in the inaccurate term that redditors and extremely-online individuals think of centrism, but the centrism of a man who has seen what works and what doesn't first hand. It seems clear that Bratton is an empathetic individual and is at least well educated on the issues of policing as it has to do with race in particular. He acknowledges the flaws of his own profession. He also understands the underlying dangers behind such ideas as completely defunding the police, or having the rest of the criminal justice system (particularly the court system) become lenient on charges and bail.
For anyone familiar with my own political proclivities, you would know I'm no authoritarian, and I myself have a healthy suspicion of any law enforcement entity that uses (or perhaps misuses) by tax dollars and harms me and my community. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, so to speak. But I'm also aware of the lessons that Afghanistan and Iraq should have taught the American people: you cannot leave a power vaccum anywhere. If you do, the psychopaths and violent sociopaths will use it to take power. The anarchist projects in Seattle and New York failed due to violence and disorder. The entire country is currently undergoing a large crime wave, and already we are seeing political reactions to it, which do not bode well for the fight against nationalist-populism. New York of all states was the only state to have significant advances in GOP support during the 2022 elections which saw that party squeak to a pathetic house majority in nearly all other states. I suspect New York has fallen mostly because the hyper-progressive criminal justice policies of Manhattan and Brooklyn have led directly to violent people being let go to commit more crime time and time again, with no legal recourse to keep them off the streets. I also suspect such rises in crime are why Los Angeles and San Francisco have undergone recall efforts for certain progressive prosecutors. It's disturbing that reform minded individuals are failing, but not necessarily surprising if their reforms come from a ideologically driven position, rather than an evidence-based one. There is however a larger underlying problem to crime in the modern American city that I am relieved is covered in this book.
In my opinion, the biggest idea that Bratton discusses is the idea that we expect police to do too much. Police should be law enforcers, but asking them to be trauma surgeons and social workers and mental health counselors is ridiculous. If we expect anyone to tackle issues of homeless people, mentally ill people, domestic disturbances, and other "broken windows" concept issues, I believe it should be through people and programs specifically designed to tackle those issues. Bratton agrees. Hell, Adam Conover from Adam Ruins Everything agrees. Anybody who has done the proper research in criminal justice and policing agrees.
American society needs to take a long hard look at itself and ask why it hasn't just built enough homes for people, or why it cannot restructure proper state/national mental health infrastructure, or why there isn't ANY sort of national, state, or local "peace officer" initiative, besides a few pilot programs, that can actually help these debilitating situations. Frankly, I believe Americans just don't care, or are too greedy to want to pitch in to help. You want to solve crime? Then build a society that TRULY provides economic and social freedom to all its citizens. That is not a society that we currently have, and the police alone cannot provide it to us.
A high recommend from me to anyone ready to face some tough reality on policing and crime in America.
That being said, the actual content of the book is fascinating. Bratton's career spans three of the US's largest metropolitan police departments. It's possible that he's seen and done it all as a cop, during the best and worst times in policing across decades of American history. The knowledge imparted in this book is provided from that lifetime of police work.
I've gone through undergrad and graduate level education in criminal justice. Bratton's analysis of policing tools and techniques are insightful and accurate. Listening to this book actually reminded me of my instruction from my own professors who were former cops themselves. The reader will form a critical understanding of police operations, law enforcement culture, and what works and doesn't work when fighting crime and disorder. I can certainly vouch for most of Bratton's work, though I do have disagreements with him on the effects and unintended consequences behind specific policies like qualified immunity. I was also disappointed he didn't seem to address certain other issues but perhaps that was because he, like so many across the country, seems to think that the criminal justice system and policing is broken. I agree, and Bratton does a good job at analyzing the fundamental issues behind what is causing the current rise in violent and non-violent crime across the country.
While the biography of his life may guide the reader through a history of American criminal justice from the 70s to today, the final few chapters analyze the upheaval of post pandemic policy and culture. This is where the biggest revelations of Bratton's personal politics shine through. Just from the reviews alone, it is clear Bratton is centrist, not in the inaccurate term that redditors and extremely-online individuals think of centrism, but the centrism of a man who has seen what works and what doesn't first hand. It seems clear that Bratton is an empathetic individual and is at least well educated on the issues of policing as it has to do with race in particular. He acknowledges the flaws of his own profession. He also understands the underlying dangers behind such ideas as completely defunding the police, or having the rest of the criminal justice system (particularly the court system) become lenient on charges and bail.
For anyone familiar with my own political proclivities, you would know I'm no authoritarian, and I myself have a healthy suspicion of any law enforcement entity that uses (or perhaps misuses) by tax dollars and harms me and my community. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, so to speak. But I'm also aware of the lessons that Afghanistan and Iraq should have taught the American people: you cannot leave a power vaccum anywhere. If you do, the psychopaths and violent sociopaths will use it to take power. The anarchist projects in Seattle and New York failed due to violence and disorder. The entire country is currently undergoing a large crime wave, and already we are seeing political reactions to it, which do not bode well for the fight against nationalist-populism. New York of all states was the only state to have significant advances in GOP support during the 2022 elections which saw that party squeak to a pathetic house majority in nearly all other states. I suspect New York has fallen mostly because the hyper-progressive criminal justice policies of Manhattan and Brooklyn have led directly to violent people being let go to commit more crime time and time again, with no legal recourse to keep them off the streets. I also suspect such rises in crime are why Los Angeles and San Francisco have undergone recall efforts for certain progressive prosecutors. It's disturbing that reform minded individuals are failing, but not necessarily surprising if their reforms come from a ideologically driven position, rather than an evidence-based one. There is however a larger underlying problem to crime in the modern American city that I am relieved is covered in this book.
In my opinion, the biggest idea that Bratton discusses is the idea that we expect police to do too much. Police should be law enforcers, but asking them to be trauma surgeons and social workers and mental health counselors is ridiculous. If we expect anyone to tackle issues of homeless people, mentally ill people, domestic disturbances, and other "broken windows" concept issues, I believe it should be through people and programs specifically designed to tackle those issues. Bratton agrees. Hell, Adam Conover from Adam Ruins Everything agrees. Anybody who has done the proper research in criminal justice and policing agrees.
American society needs to take a long hard look at itself and ask why it hasn't just built enough homes for people, or why it cannot restructure proper state/national mental health infrastructure, or why there isn't ANY sort of national, state, or local "peace officer" initiative, besides a few pilot programs, that can actually help these debilitating situations. Frankly, I believe Americans just don't care, or are too greedy to want to pitch in to help. You want to solve crime? Then build a society that TRULY provides economic and social freedom to all its citizens. That is not a society that we currently have, and the police alone cannot provide it to us.
A high recommend from me to anyone ready to face some tough reality on policing and crime in America.
July 18, 2021
Review
A read that basically says look how good I am. A progressive law and order gun for hire who does well when he’s given a large budgets to work with
A read that basically says look how good I am. A progressive law and order gun for hire who does well when he’s given a large budgets to work with
June 21, 2021
Bill Bratton joined the Boston PD after serving in Vietnam, beginning his career as a street cop and eventually leading three of the largest police forces in America - Boston, LA, and NYC twice. He was a reformer, using modern policing to reduce crime in every jurisdiction in which he served. For many, perhaps most Americans, the police are the government agents with whom they have the most contact. While he used statistics effectively, his focus wasn't on the numbers, but in improving the quality of life in the community. Strategies like stop, question, and search were controversial, but effective in reducing crime. Yet, when the strategy no longer achieved its goals or was corrupted, he was able to refocus on the end game, improving trust and community safety with progressive neighborhood-oriented policing. Training is at the core of the police mission, especially as police are called upon to resolve a myriad of situations, including mental health crises, the threats of domestic and foreign terrorism, social and racial upheaval, and more, all aggravated by social media. He addresses some of the recent excesses of police force and the killing of Black men and states emphatically those actions have no place in law enforcement and should be prosecuted based on a clear understanding of the facts. Bratton acknowledges the historic use of police in America to subjugate Blacks, but does not believe that police are inherently racist, yet he recognizes that implicit bias exists and should be recognized. Bratton is an optimist and sees a better future for policing that the reader should also appreciate.
August 19, 2022
Although I first met LAPD Chief William Bratton in Los Angeles at his retirement in 2009, I had followed his career and police reform policies when he was the Commissioner of the Boston Police Department and later Commissioner for the New York City Police Department, where my own father served for almost forty years. Chief Bratton’s courage, intellect, leadership, and desire to serve the community, especially his “people skills” are what distinguished and set him apart from all other Heads of Police.
Chief Bratton’s well-written and fascinating tale "The Profession: A Memoir of Community, Race and the Arc of Policing in America" should be required reading in all federal, state and local law enforcement academies, for all criminal justice programs across the country! Bratton reimagined policing and, as outstanding leaders often do, not only chose the best people to surround him but empowered them. The results of his leadership at both the LAPD and NYPD speak for itself—he engendered community trust, the streets were far safer and the police mission, pride and inherent accountability never more defined. Although the legacy of Chief William J. Bratton will endure for generations, we live in a time where the Chief’s sagacity and wisdom are needed more than ever.
Kenneth R. Strange Jr.--author of "A Cop's Son: One G-Man's Fight Against Jihad, Global Fraud and the Cartels"
Chief Bratton’s well-written and fascinating tale "The Profession: A Memoir of Community, Race and the Arc of Policing in America" should be required reading in all federal, state and local law enforcement academies, for all criminal justice programs across the country! Bratton reimagined policing and, as outstanding leaders often do, not only chose the best people to surround him but empowered them. The results of his leadership at both the LAPD and NYPD speak for itself—he engendered community trust, the streets were far safer and the police mission, pride and inherent accountability never more defined. Although the legacy of Chief William J. Bratton will endure for generations, we live in a time where the Chief’s sagacity and wisdom are needed more than ever.
Kenneth R. Strange Jr.--author of "A Cop's Son: One G-Man's Fight Against Jihad, Global Fraud and the Cartels"
August 16, 2021
Bratton’s “The Profession” is the first book I have read in years to change my mind about a few things. First, that maybe “stop and frisk” was unproductive. Secondly, that it is possible to reduce crime and improve quality of life without “stop and frisk” or other aggressive policing methods. Bratton’s experiences “turning around” large organizations were fascinating and have some interesting points to compare and contrast with teaching.
Data collection is good compared to no data collection. The tricky thing is, what data should be measured? What is important. Both systems went from almost no data collection to at times fairly pointless and arbitrary data collection. Both systems can be unwieldy and set in their ways. It seems, however, that people care more if cops are doing a good job than if teachers are doing a good job. Bratton would always talk to the local communities, and see “what are your concerns? What can we do to help?”
This seems simple, but talking to people, listening, and coming up with concrete plans of action based on listening is crucial for almost anything.
Data collection is good compared to no data collection. The tricky thing is, what data should be measured? What is important. Both systems went from almost no data collection to at times fairly pointless and arbitrary data collection. Both systems can be unwieldy and set in their ways. It seems, however, that people care more if cops are doing a good job than if teachers are doing a good job. Bratton would always talk to the local communities, and see “what are your concerns? What can we do to help?”
This seems simple, but talking to people, listening, and coming up with concrete plans of action based on listening is crucial for almost anything.
August 22, 2021
This book, whose co-author is my brother, is a very lively and engaging presentation of ideal modern policing, told in the shadow of George Floyd's killing. Bratton is very much a proponent of the Broken Windows theory, in which minor infractions like fare evasion and writing graffiti are addressed aggressively with arrests in order to set an example of order. On a personal level I am offended by both of these activities, but, in a discussion of a campaign against subway fare evasion, a sentence like "when their nets were full they (the cops) marched them upstairs in a daisy chain..." is a little too revealingly gleeful. The sentence, "The root causes of crime are criminals--or people who, in a moment of passion, commit a crime," was likewise surprising. I would have also liked more discussion of the blue wall of silence.
April 29, 2024
Terrific and fully engaging book about (per the book title's "subtitle") "Community, Race, and the Arc of Policing in America." Author Bill Bratton, now retired, served as the commissioner of the boston Police Department and the NYPD (2x), the chief of the NYC Transit Police, and the chief of the LAPD (not all in that order). He is also a political independent, as stated in a podcast interview that he did in a 2021 Stay Tuned podcast with Preet Bharara ( https://cafe.com/stay-tuned/crisis-in... ), and I appreciate that he seems - at least to me - to call balls and strikes fairly as to policing and public policy concerning policing. I highly recommend both this book and listening to the podcast, which recording led me right to the book (after which I did a re-listen). Super interesting!
February 20, 2022
How to review? He starts out well enough, very thoughtful, and if you can get past the usual self-aggrandizing nature of an author promoting his own heroism, you can make it through the first half with interest. Then he doubles down on stop-(question)-and-frisk and on "broken windows" policing, which has been largely disproved by subsequent science and investigation. Still, to that point he treats racism and implicit bias as necessary parts of the discussion. Not bad. Then in the last quarter or so, he goes full-fledged white male cop on the whole topic and ultimately ends up with a screed against reform ideas.
It's as if the book was written by someone becoming increasingly disgusted with other points of view and progressively more hostile about the topic.
It's as if the book was written by someone becoming increasingly disgusted with other points of view and progressively more hostile about the topic.
July 21, 2021
Bratton relates his story such that it is not oppressively self-serving, and even relates some of his less positive acts. He has had quite a career, and tells the story well. His honesty in relating his views on race relations between police and the community serve a useful purpose, but I suspect he has made almost no inroads in convincing African-Americans of the helpfulness of police within those communities. The historical meaning of the word for police as community helpers is where Bratton comes from, but even his story will likely not channel the police away from their law enforcement focus.
May 10, 2022
Bratton's straightforward style and broad sense of mission shine through here. I was impressed with his ability to tackle problems within the police force at every level and his persistence in making positive change. No one is perfect and he admits to his mistakes while also acknowledging the barriers faced in a political climate. I particularly enjoyed his approach to community engagement. I was surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did, but should have remembered to trust the friend who recommended it!
August 24, 2021
An interesting insider's perspective (he's led the PD in NY, Boston and LA) of what the good that police can do, if they have the right mindset, and how what's needed can change over time. The book could have done with tighter editing at the end (there were pages which were duplicates of the same information immediately next to each other), however, still well worth reading both for the progress that's been made in policing and additional changes which are still needed.
November 28, 2021
Much Wisdom Here
Although I have been fired by both Bill Bratton and Rudy Giuliani, I give the former credit for much of his management of an alma mater of mine as well, the NYPD.Certainly a good start point for discussion of important policing issues of the day. I certainly have not forgotten my views of his corruption
policies where we would probably
disagree still today. Very little said about police malfeasance and corruption-too little in my judgment.
Although I have been fired by both Bill Bratton and Rudy Giuliani, I give the former credit for much of his management of an alma mater of mine as well, the NYPD.Certainly a good start point for discussion of important policing issues of the day. I certainly have not forgotten my views of his corruption
policies where we would probably
disagree still today. Very little said about police malfeasance and corruption-too little in my judgment.
January 2, 2022
Author Bratton takes us through the work of leadership in police work in big cities. It's a demanding job and the author takes us through the demanding business of having to get the work done. He talks openly about the people he had to deal with, those of both sides of the law.
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The book uses a large amount of apparently exact dialogues. While it makes the book has lots of energy, it's difficult to believe we are reading the exact words of the stories and events.
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The book uses a large amount of apparently exact dialogues. While it makes the book has lots of energy, it's difficult to believe we are reading the exact words of the stories and events.
October 7, 2022
Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle once stated that “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” William J. Bratton may not deserve the accolade “great” (unless you ask his opinion), but when it comes to the history of policing few men have been more influential."
From Barry Latzer's review of The Profession, by Bill Bratton
For the full review, please go to: https://lawliberty.org/?post_type=boo...
From Barry Latzer's review of The Profession, by Bill Bratton
For the full review, please go to: https://lawliberty.org/?post_type=boo...
June 25, 2024
A reference for criminal justice professionals
"The Profession" is a captivating read for those seeking a deeper understanding of contemporary American policing. Bratton's firsthand experiences and insights make the book a valuable resource for anyone interested in criminal justice reform and urban studies. While some may find Bratton's perspective subjective, the book undeniably offers a thought-provoking exploration of the ever-evolving role of law enforcement in our society.
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"The Profession" is a captivating read for those seeking a deeper understanding of contemporary American policing. Bratton's firsthand experiences and insights make the book a valuable resource for anyone interested in criminal justice reform and urban studies. While some may find Bratton's perspective subjective, the book undeniably offers a thought-provoking exploration of the ever-evolving role of law enforcement in our society.
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August 4, 2021
I can't imagine a more deeply considered discussion of the challenges facing the police in this country, or a better explanation of the solutions that have worked repeatedly in the three major cities where Bill Bratton has served as police commissioner. It is a compelling read, presenting a brilliant counter argument to the defund the police narrative. Highly recommended.
Read
September 4, 2021I couldn’t finish this book. The author needed to get this first hand account out there and tell his side of the story. Important account of behind the scenes police work in NYC and Boston - politics, union and public sentiment but the detail and the players were too minutia for me to want to get to the end.
July 17, 2022
An outstanding read. I will probably expand upon this review later on, but I want to strongly recommend this book to anyone and everyone who has the chance to read it (especially in the US). Regardless of what viewpoint or experience you might come into it with, there is something of value to be learned in these pages.
November 8, 2021
Required Reading
This book should be required reading for anyone in the command ranks of a police department. Mr. Bratton’s insights into policing in America are invaluable. He is truly one of the foremost policing minds of our time. Thank you Commissioner!
This book should be required reading for anyone in the command ranks of a police department. Mr. Bratton’s insights into policing in America are invaluable. He is truly one of the foremost policing minds of our time. Thank you Commissioner!
February 1, 2023
I think Bratton’s discussion of “sense of disorder” is a great description and understanding of why low crime places are still frightened of crime. I’d encourage everyone to read this book and think about it.
June 27, 2021
I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in learning about policing from an inside point of view. Bill Bratton was the Commissioner for the NYPD, and he shares his takes on policing throughout his book. It's more than just a story of how he became Commissioner. This book intertwines the history of policing with Bill Bratton's history as a cop.
June 28, 2021
One of the best books that I've read on policing and police leadership.
July 13, 2021
A timely book...well-written & informative.
August 22, 2021
Thoughtful and insightful as to the issues that affect the society we live in.
September 2, 2021
Bill Bratton’s mesmerizing lookback over his years of experience and expertise in the art of policing. An extraordinary career.
October 10, 2021
I found this book wordy and redundant - however it is consistent with his return as a two time NYPD commissioner.
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