The departure from the NYPD's "hands off" policy precipitated the reduction in crime in the 1990s - both violent and non-violent - that continues to this day. The FBI highlighted this progress in its annual Uniform Crime Reports. This year, New York City's murder rate is seven per 100,000 people. In Chicago that number is 15.5, in Philadelphia it's 22.1, and in Detroit it stands at 41.5. Over the past four years the murder rate in New York City has declined 12 percent compared to a national decline of half a percent during the same time period.
The statistics go on and on. Bloomberg has continued Giuliani's crime prevention policies. The improvements over just last year are stunning - murder down 4.5 percent, rape down 11.2 percent, robbery down 6.2 percent, burglary down 7.8 percent, and motor vehicle theft down 10.8 percent. Perhaps the notion of "broken-windows policing" wasn't that far-fetched after all.
New York City has led the way in the urban renaissance which began under Giuliani. Though crime has declined nationally, and is in fact at a 40-year low, no other city in America has seen such a rapid improvement in the safety and security of its citizens and visitors.
Americans have become accustomed to nationally declining levels of crime. This progress, however, is not an inevitability. Crime will not continue to drop nationally if Giuliani-style reforms are rejected. Europe is a case in point for the failed, liberal policies of the past. In a 2001 study, the British Home Office found that violent and property crime increased in the late 1990s in every wealthy country except the United States. Americans have a much lower property crime rate than European countries and violent crime has risen to a level in Europe which equals or surpasses that of the United States.
Eli Lehrer of the American Enterprise notes that, "superior policing does little good without a commitment from the justice system to keep violent thugs off the streets. The United States has the longest prison sentences in the Western world." The United States operates on a pretty simple notion: catch the bad guys and lock them up.
The reforms initiated by Giuliani in the 1990s prove that we can, in fact, prevent crime. The example set by New York City is a model of how to restore law, order, and safety to a community - and one worthy of emulation by mayors across the country.
Spring Break
