Rating: 
Summary: A well-written blend of autobiography and policy analysis.
Review: The former Commissioner of the New York Police Department takes the reader on an odyssey which was his career in American Policing. From his early years with Boston, through successful tenures with the New York Transit Police, Metro Police, the Boston Police(again)and finally the NYPD. Insightful and thoughtful comments on the role of the police in society are coupled with a sober reflection on what works in policing. With a minimal amount of personal grand-standing, Bratton does even some scores with folks who were "obstacles" in his career. A pleasant and enlightening view of the world of the modern urban police administrator.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting in what is unsaid
Review: This book is a ghosted autobiography of Bratton. The writing isn't as bad as some of the reviewers have suggested. It is a book that can be read in an evening. The strategies suggested by Bratton are now well known and have become the flavor of the month in the United States. To keep a neighborhood presence and to prevent the development of crime, rather than to react to the commission of more serious crime. To use technology to focus on problem areas and to maximize the police resources. Bratton is very much the sort of person who once in job does not seem to accept things but rather wants to change things around so as to achieve different results. The interesting things are in a way left unsaid. Bratton joined the Boston Police Force after a three month stint in Vietnam as a Military Policeman. He relates how Boston at that time had significant corruption. Further a large number of police officers were lazy and avoided work. In the book there is not the slightest suggestion that Bratton as a junior police officer did anything about these things. In fact the first real outrage in the book is a passage about how outrageous it is that people urinate in the street, use language and so forth. One of Bratton's claims to fame is his focus on what has come to be known as zero tolerance policing. That is the belief that by preventing low level crime neighborhoods are protected from the development of a criminal culture. Such an approach has angered some groups in the States as it is argued that such policing styles are targeted against disadvantaged people. The failure to act against other police in his early career is something, which is easy to understand. He as a junior police officer would not have had the power to alter entrenched patterns of behavior and he would have ended up in another profession. If some one such as Bratton was not able to act against corruption in his early years one can understand the immensity of the problem. Bratton is clearly and intelligent man with considerable drive and one who is committed to honest policing. His powerlessness as a younger man shows the importance of developing ways to ensure that police culture is monitored so the community can be protected.
Rating:
Summary: Let's have more Crime Fighting and Less Politics
Review: Very entertaining as a struggle between two big egos (the mayor v. the commissioner) but as a crime fighting blueprint it lacks the insights of the officer doing the job.
Rating: 
Summary: The Man and the Myth
Review: What an ego!!! But to be honest, perhaps Bratton deserves to toot his horn. Although I never worked for him, my cousin served under him when he was Chief of Transit Police in NYC. She loved him. He got her the Glock semiautomatic sidearm, he changed the look of the Transit Police and he reduced subway crime during the peak of New York's crime wave. I guess it took me a while to get to Bratton's book, but I'm glad I finally did. The question is: Is William Bratton a great cop, or a great politician? Perhaps he's both.
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