BY BILL PARENT
UCLA Today
New LAPD Chief William J. Bratton brought his
straightforward approach on policing and criminal justice issues
to UCLA May 1 for a roundtable discussion with Chancellor Albert
Carnesale and a group of faculty who can be or already are a
valuable resource in understanding and fighting crime in the
city.
Bratton laid out his philosophy and initiatives
for the group that included senior administrators, UCLA Police
Chief Clarence Chapman and faculty representing law, social
welfare, education, history, economics, policy studies and even
physics. “The city’s homicide rate will go down,
believe me,” Bratton told the group gathered at the Faculty
Center at a meeting arranged by UCLA Government and Community
Relations.
Economics Professor Emeritus Michael Intriligator
and Professor of Earth and Space Sciences Vladimir Keilis-Borok
presented a mathematical model of homicide cycles in Los Angeles
that shows a high probability of a new cycle starting this year.
When police can predict a trend based on such
factors as an increasing youth population, Bratton said, they
can stop that trend. The police chief had earlier discussed
his preference for hard numbers and statistics in fighting crime,
including the use of geographic information system mapping hardware.
Bratton told faculty that he looks for the “tipping point”
and works to identify key events and trends that can reverse
a negative situation.
Professor of History and Policy Studies Eric
Monkkonen, who has written extensively on long-term homicide
patterns in American cities, told Bratton that as bad as the
Los Angeles per-capita murder rate has seemed, the per-capita
homicide rates in the 19th century exceeded that.
Among faculty at the meeting who have already
worked on police issues or with the LAPD were Law School Dean
Jonathan Varat, who served on the Christopher Commission, Education
Professor Wellford “Buzz” Wilms, Social Welfare
Adjunct Professor Jorja Prover and Law Professor Jonathan Zasloff,
who described a moderately successful gang intervention initiative
he worked on in Hollenbeck. Policy Studies Professor Mark Kleiman,
who has also worked with Bratton, urged the chief to redirect
drug enforcement efforts to focus on the overlap between drugs
and serious crime.
Associate Vice Chancellor of Community Partnerships
Franklin Gilliam sparked a lively exchange on the issue of racial
profiling and the historical tensions between many Los Angeles
neighborhoods and the LAPD. While reiterating his public call
for increased family and community responsibility, Bratton acknowledged
the “close link between racism and crime.”
“You can’t work on one without working
on the other,” the police chief said.
The School of Public Policy and Social Research
also has been conducting leadership workshops for the senior
command of the LAPD for the past three years. This year, working
with Bratton, the school is shifting the focus to police leadership
on issues of gang violence and plans to host a national dialogue
on the topic using Los Angeles as a model.
“As a public university with great faculty
strength in public policy,” said Fernando Torres-Gil,
associate dean, “it is incumbent upon us to focus significant
research, teaching and public service on the problems and challenges
facing Los Angeles. Among the toughest of these are crime and
criminal justice issues.”
