02.28.08 5:00 AM CST
• Letters
• Chip Rowe
Our May issue will contain a letter from former LAPD chief Daryl Gates about the profile in February of current LAPD chief Bill Bratton. But we also heard from other police officers. Rod Decker, who retired from the LAPD in 1983, writes: “The chain of command starts with the mayor, then the police commission, and finally reaches the chief. That’s how you end up with directives like Special Order 40, which prohibits offers from asking federal officials about a person’s immigration status before he or she is charged with a crime. But being aware of a person’s background keeps cops alive. Although Bratton supports Special Order 40, to take this hands-off approach is idiotic. It allows many criminals to slip through the cracks.”
“Years ago I had the privilege on sitting next to Bratton at a conference,” adds Bill Sullivan, a lieutenant with the Port Authority of Allegheny County. “You can tell when someone is a leader—Bratton has ‘command presence.’ At the time he was head of the 4,000-man New York Transit Police. He told me he had instituted a new policy to go after quality-of-life crimes in the subways such as disorderly conduct, fare evasion, graffiti, intoxication and loitering—the theory being that these were the same people committing robberies and assaults. Sure enough, transit crime fell dramatically. Pittsburgh has adopted that same strategy.”
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