Abstract
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has made enforcement of laws against disorder and quality‐of‐life offenses a central part of its policing strategy. Concomitantly, New York City (NYC) experienced a renaissance in orderliness, cleanliness, tourism, real estate value, and crime reduction, although other problems such as poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, racial tensions, and homelessness persist. This paper examines quality‐of‐life policing practices in NYC, describes the philosophical underpinnings, explores the critical response to the program, and presents lessons of potential relevance to other policing organizations in the USA and around the world.
Acknowledgements
The research presented was supported by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and administered by the National Institute of Justice (98‐8252‐NY‐IJ; 2000‐7353‐NY‐IJ), by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (5 T32 DA07233‐24, R01 DA013690‐05), by the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program in New York City (National Institute of Justice and National Opinion Research Corporation: OJP‐2001‐C003, Subcontract 6073), and by National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a Fulbright Conference in Brisbane, Australia in July 2003. The authors acknowledge the many contributions to this research made by John Eterno, Angela Taylor, and ADAM interviewers. The authors especially thank key staff at the Office of Policy Planning of the NYPD, the Mayor’s Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator, the NYC Criminal Justice Agency, and the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services. The opinions expressed in this paper do not represent the official position of the funding agencies, or National Development and Research Institutes.