Page 60 - 1Proactive Policing

Pro-Active Policing

enforcement technique. It's efficient, and it protects the public. But creating temptations that are
often questions of instantaneous judgment for the target, where it's extremely ambiguous as to

what the target's intent really was at the time he or she was arrested, is a very, very troubling side
of police work, and really walks on the precipice of a violation of due process. THOMAS
REPPETTO 'Sound Practice' It's better that the crime victim be a trained officer with a backup

team than an innocent citizen walking the streets or the platforms of the subways. That's why the
decoys were put in there. They're put in where there have been a lot of reports of crime. I would

expect that on a referendum it would get 99 percent of the vote.

It's also very strong from a legal standpoint. You've got a police officer who's trained. You've got

an ironclad case, as opposed to a citizen who may not have seen the person, who may be afraid
to follow through and make a complaint. So, with the police officer, it's the same as with a drug

sale. If you sell to an undercover officer, you've got an ironclad legal case.

It's also a theory called proactive policing, as opposed to reactive policing. All progressive police

administrators today try to be proactive. Instead of waiting around for things to happen, they go
out where the numbers say there is a lot of crime. If the numbers say a lot of businesswomen are
getting mugged, you might put a female officer out there with a briefcase.

It is dangerous, even with a backup team. The perpetrator can get in some pretty good licks. But
you're doing something about preventing crime, rather than waiting and writing a report on it. My

basic quarrel with the extreme civil liberties point of view is that most everything they've been
criticizing is good, solid, sound police work. If it's done in the wrong way, the answer is not to say,

''Let's abolish it.''

The basic principle is that these things are not some weird idea that somebody thought up.

They're based on standard police practices. And if you posit the idea that there are crime
problems in the subways, and I think everyone would agree that there are, then the way you deal

with it is with standard police practices.

A police force is created to maintain order and protect people against crime, and it isn't always

going to come out neat and sweet. Most cases are not 100 percent clear cut either way. A lot of
them are judgment calls. Certainly there are ethical difficulties. The rule has always been that

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