Police Commissioner Bill Bratton fiercely defended his “Broken Windows” approach to crime-fighting on Thursday — revealing in a sweeping report how it has drastically reduced crime in the Big Apple and lowered the jail population.
“We need it now more than ever,” Bratton said during a briefing at the Police Academy.
The city’s top cop, whose proven police strategy is under attack by the City Council, cited The Post’s front page on Thursday as the perfect example of why Broken Windows works.
A Brooklyn man was busted for biking on the sidewalk, and it turned out he had a stolen, loaded gun and an open warrant.
Bratton said the arrest was made possible by the quality-of-life policies being targeted in a decriminalization push by council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
“The New York Post had a cover story about a bicycle stop that was made by two of our officers,” he said. “That quality-of-life bicycle stop was essential in getting a gun off the street and getting basically a career criminal once again put back in the system.”
According to Bratton’s 41-page report, cracking down on low-level offenses has led to a 36 percent decrease in major felonies since 1994 — during Bratton’s first turn as police commissioner.
“By applying summonses to violations and arrests to misdemeanor crimes, rather than looking the other way because these offenses are ‘too insignificant,’ officers were correcting conditions early,” the report says.
“Arresting someone for a misdemeanor frequently prevents him from graduating to committing felonies, for which severe sanctions like prison may result.”
The report added that less than 1 percent of those busted for minor crimes are jailed pending a court appearance and that most of those who get locked up have multiple prior arrests, more than half of them for felonies.
It also revealed a significant drop in both the city and state jail population in the 20 years of Broken Windows policing.
Bratton’s report is his largest counteroffensive to Mark-Viverito’s plan to decriminalize several quality-of-life offenses, including fare-beating and public urination.
In a statement, Mark-Viverito’s spokesman said the Broken Windows approach had “driven a wedge between law enforcement and the communities they serve, while also clogging our criminal-justice system.”
Mayor de Blasio said Bratton’s report showed “that a lot of progress has been made” and Hizzoner declared himself “in absolute agreement with the commissioner on the core issue here.”
“I believe that quality-of-life policing is one of the reasons why we have lower crime than we ever did in history and the fact that it continues to go down,” de Blasio said. The mayor said he didn’t “blame anyone who says, ‘Well, can we talk offense by offense and look to change this one or look to change that one.’ That’s a valid discussion we’ll continue to have,” he said.
“But I also want to recognize, within the current rubric, things are changing already in a very big way,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mark-Viverito does not have the full support of the council, including some liberal members, for her decriminalization plan. “Public urination — I wanna say I’m leaning towards ‘no’ on that one,” said Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens).
“If you’re a repeat offender — like a serial pisser on the street, like this is what you do, you just go around marking your territory — perhaps you need to go to jail.”
Most council members interviewed by The Post said they’re waiting to hear more details from Mark-Viverito.
Councilman Rafael Espinal suggested his own exceptions.
“I don’t believe anyone should be arrested or ticketed for drinking on their stoop,” he said. “Parks and beaches I would include in that, as well.”
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen and Beckie Strum