Horrific crime on the subway this week. Random crime.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, the first Sunday of the new year. Well with us today is a former commissioner, William J. Bratton. He’s now executive chairman of Risk Advisory. He was a police commissioner in New York City for so many years, from twenty fourteen to twenty sixteen, in nineteen ninety four, in nineteen ninety six. Boy, that’s a diversity of time, Commissioner.

0:26 We have so many problems in the country nationwide, and we have problems in our inner cities, especially in New York. Where do we start on a Sunday morning.

0:37 Speaker 2 Well, first off, you start with optimism in a profession that has had its ups and downs. I’ve always been an optimist, and I think some of the success I had in New York, Los Angeles and Boston dealing with crime and disorder was starting out as an optimist, the idea that things can be changed. At the moment, there’s

0:57 a lot of pessimism, and that’s understandable in terms of the crime situation disorder in New York and other major cities. And now once again, as we have come into twenty twenty five, terrorism which had been relatively dormant in our country for a while has raided its head with the two ugly incidents on New Year’s Day in Las Vegas

1:21 and in New Orleans. So going forward we’re going to have to be optimistic that we can deal with it. We’ve dealt with it successfully in the past. We have new leadership in Washington with President Trump coming into office Juniory twentieth, so on the national level, we’ll have to wait and see. He’s apparently quite optimistic about his capabilities

1:45 and what he can do. At the local level, many cities like New York amight and great difficulties with leadership is at the moment very troubled in New York City. Mayor Adams, who you and I both like John. His hot is in the right place when it comes to dealing with prime disorder, but he’s had more than his

2:04 share of personal problems this past year. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with him going forward. I am very encouraged by what’s now happening at the NYPD after several years of turmoil. The new Commissioner, Jesse Tish, somebody that I’m very fond of and have worked with.

2:25 Her new leadership team is quickly falling into place. I’m optimistic that she has what it takes to get New York back under control, but a lot of that’s going to be in the face of great political difficulties. As you know, you and I have talked about this city council legislature up in Albany. They are so far out

2:47 of the left, that’s the one they haven’t fallen off the earth, and that’s going to be very problematic going into twenty twenty five. Once again, Now, if you were with.

2:59 Speaker 1 Eric Adams and the Jessica Tish would be there and you were whispering in every year, what would you.

3:04 Speaker 2 Tell them more cops. I’ll be very frank with you. I had thirty eight thousand police officers when I was police commissioner in nineteen ninety four when crime was truly out of control, and we got it under control because I had enough cops, we had the right ideas, we had strong political leadership made Giuliani, and for twenty five years,

3:27 crime went down every year in the city under Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly under me once again in twenty fourteen. Ironically, the first four years of de Blasio’s administration were some of the safest years in New York City history as it related a crime, but our legislation and our city council screwed that up. And around the country very similarly, progressive,

3:50 woke left legislators screwed things up as it relates to shoplifting and other couple forms of crime. But we can change that. But in the New York City, as in many of the cities, the number one thing that needs to change is the size of the police force. There are just not enough cops. The apartment is actively down

4:10 to it. I think thirty four thirty three thousand officers.

4:15 Speaker 1 That the police officers have to have confidence that our city is going to back them up and they’re not going to be in trouble for making.

4:25 Speaker 2 The arrest, and that is something that is missing because of the crazy laws that have been passed by the city Council and the legislature. But even working within those laws, a difference can be made. I think Commissioner Titian, the new leadership team that she’s now surrounded her south with, I know them all that they have the capabilities to lead,

4:45 they have vision, they have ideas, but they do not have enough cops. And the overtime, the billion dollar overtime budget of the city police Department that the city Council complains about all the time. The reason that it is so high as there is not enough cops and this city needs desperately a minimum of thirty six to thirty

5:08 eight thousand cops. So if I were Mayor Adams, if Fire Commissioner Tish, I would be doing everything in my power to alert the public to that need, as we did with even under build of Blasio, as Maya Dinkins did back in the early nineties. That make the case for more cops, and with more cops you can get

5:26 a lot more done.

5:27 Speaker 1 I agree. Nationally, I believe that President Trump will do the job after January twentieth to two.

5:36 Speaker 2 PM well nationally and internationally that nationally, many other cities experiencing the same issue as New York not enough cops to defund the police movement, too many far left criminal justice reform and issues. The good news is in twenty twenty four, the defund the police movement is now dead in most locations. Black Lives Matter has moved to the background, fortunately,

6:07 and so that maybe he’s speaking to high more police officers in cities in America actually had a pretty good crime year that many of them had homicides down radically Oakland, Philadelphia, Baltimore. So we are starting to see some progress as he relates to gun violence in some states. As crazy as California was with their shoplifting laws, they have now corrected

6:32 that they are now going aggressively after shoplifters, something New York should do. But I wouldn’t bet any money that New York will do that, not with the city council and legislature we have here. But going forward, President Trump is making it quite clear what he intends to do, and I think we’re seeing many other politicians around the

6:52 country understanding that there’s a need for tougher and better and you can have much better policing now in twenty twenty five because the technologies that they get to work with, the phenomenal drones AI. These are things that ten fifteen years ago we never even had heard about. And it’s he and now, and so that police have many more

7:15 tools to work with. They just need to be authorized and funded to use them.

7:20 Speaker 1 Commissioner, You’re absolutely right in somebody in the city, somebody in the state, somebody well Washington, We’re going to have President Trump putting his foot down. But somebody in our city, in our state has to put their foot down to.

7:35 Speaker 2 That’s correct, because right now it’s not happening that. For example, the subways, the subways, and I know subways inside. Led the subway police in Boston, and i’d led them very successfully. Here in New York, there’s an area that is desperately short of enough police, and they’ve attempted to deal with that.

7:55 Mayor Adams and his various police commissioners by overtime. By urging the problem with that one, it runs up the overtime bill too, it wears out the cops. Three. The cops are the incentive to the subways on overtime surgery.

8:09 I’m familiar with the subways. They ruined me able to tell you how to get times square and as far as putting the National Guide in there, they don’t have any real powers. They’re there basically as uniformed mannequins. So that may make some people feel better, particularly now with the terrorism issues, but the reality is you need more

8:29 trained police officers in the subways who can effectively take advantage of some of the many new technologies that are down there. But once again it comes back to keep it simple, stupid. More cops. That’s the ingredient. That’s what helped to turn it around. In the nineties. I had a lot of cops to work with. We had a

8:48 lot of great ideas. You have a police commissioner and a leadership team that have a lot of great ideas, but they don’t have enough cops.

8:56 Speaker 1 Commissioner Bill Branton, thank you for everything you’ve done for New York and kept New York safe during your term. And God bless you, God bless America. And let’s pray for the solutions.

9:09 Speaker 2 Thank you, John, and thanks for keep continuing to beat the drum on this critic solution. Thank you.