William J. Bratton

Infobox police officer
name = William J. Bratton


caption = William J. Bratton
born = Birth date and age|1947|10|6
died =
badgenumber =
placeofbirth = Boston, Massachusetts
placeofdeath =
nickname = "Bill"
department = Los Angeles Police Department
service =
serviceyears = Boston Police: 1970–1993 NYPD: 1994–1996 LAPD: 2002-
rank = Chief of Police
awards = Infobox_Person
residence = Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
other_names =


caption =
birth_name = William Joseph Bratton
birth_date = Birth date and age|1947|10|6
birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts
death_date =
death_place =
death_cause =
known =
occupation = Police Chief
title = Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
salary = $300,442 per year
term = 2002–present
predecessor = Martin H. Pomeroy
successor =
party =
boards =
religion = Roman Catholic
spouse = Rikki Klieman, his fourth wife
partner =
children = David Bratton
relations =
website =
footnotes =
employer = City of Los Angeles
height =
weight =

William Joseph "Bill" Bratton (born October 6, 1947) is currently the 54th chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He has previously served as the New York City Police Commissioner and Boston Police Commissioner.

Boston

Bratton is native to Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Boston Technical High School, graduating in 1965. From there, he served in the Military Police Corps of the United States Army during the Vietnam War, returning to Boston in 1970 to start a police career in the Boston Police Department. He quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant, and in 1980, at the age of 32 and ten years after his appointment to the BPD, Bratton was named as the youngest-ever Executive Superintendent of the Boston Police, the department's second highest post. He was dismissed as executive superintendent after he told a journalist that his goal was to be the Police Commissioner. He was reassigned to the position of Inspector of Bureaus, a sinecure which was responsible for liaison with minority and LGBTQ communities. He was later brought back into police headquarters to handle labor relations and 911 related issues.

Between 1983 and 1986 Bratton was Chief of Police for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, following which he became Superintendent of Boston's Metropolitan District Commission Police. In 1990, he was appointed Chief of Police of the New York City Transit Police. Bratton was Superintendent in Chief of the Boston Police Department from 1991 until 1993, when he became that city's 34th Police Commissioner. He holds the Department's highest award for valor.

New York City

In 1994, William Bratton was appointed the 38th Commissioner of the NYPD by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. He had success in this position, and introduced the CompStat system of tracking crimes, which proved successful in reducing crime in New York City and is still used to this day. A new tax surcharge enabled the training and deployment of around 5,000 new better-educated police officers, police decision-making was devolved to precinct level, and a backlog of 50,000 unserved warrants was cleared. The CompStat real-time police intelligence computer system was effectively introduced and integrated. Police numbers were further boosted in 1995 when New York's housing and transit police were merged into the New York Police Department.Bratton left the job in 1996 after alleged personal conflicts with Giuliani, partly due to Giuliani's opposition to some of Bratton's reforms and partly due to Giuliani's belief that Bratton was getting more credit for the reduction in crime than Giuliani was.

In 1996, Bratton was featured in a business case prepared by James L. Heskett and published by Harvard Business School (Ref 9-396-293). Bratton's efforts to effectively turn around the New York City Police Department is used by many business schools as a tool for teaching organizational design and change.Fact|date=March 2008

Los Angeles

Bratton worked as a private consultant with Kroll Associates, [http://kroll.com/about/library/lapd/ also known as LAPD's Independent Monitor,] until his appointment by Mayor of Los Angeles James Hahn as the LAPD's 54th Chief of Police in October 2002. On June 19, 2007, the LA Police Commission reappointed William Bratton to a second five-year term, the first reappointment of an LAPD chief in almost twenty years.

Personal life

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Law Enforcement from the University of Massachusetts and was a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Bratton is married to attorney and Court TV analyst Rikki Klieman, and has one son, David, from a prior marriage. Bratton was also formerly married to attorney and newscaster Cheryl Fiandaca.Bratton is Roman Catholic.

In 1998, Random House published his memoir "TURNAROUND: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic", written with co-author Peter Knobler. It was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

ee also

*Testilying
*The District

References

William Bratton & Peter Knobler. "Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic." Random House, 1998.

External links

* [http://city-journal.org/html/17_3_preventing_terrorism.html On the Front Line in the War on Terrorism, "City Journal," Summer 2007]
* [http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/bratton_bio.pdf LAPD: William J. Bratton Biography]
* [http://www.fulldisclosure.net/flash/VideoBlogs/VideoBlog31.php William Bratton speaks out against concealed carry]
* [http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/kpcc/news/shows/pattmorrison/2007/05/20070516_pattmorrison?start=00:00:01&end=00:52:31 "Ask the Chief" - Southern California NPR (KPCC) Interview May 16, 2007 focusing on the MacArthur Park Demonstrations and Bratton's reappointment as LAPD's Chief (Real Audio)]