One of our first meetings together involved a police officer who was tired of arresting Black and Brown teens in low-income neighborhoods for turnstile jumping. He knew most of the teens simply could not afford the fare. The officer felt he was a part of a broken system, ruining lives over $2.75. Policing in Brownsville was about arresting people, whereas policing in Park Slope was about protecting people. That divide goes to the heart of Broken Windows Policing.
Broken Windows Policing is a decades-long focus on policing minor crimes and infractions such as turnstile jumping and noise complaints. The policy started with Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Commissioner William Bratton in the 1990s and continues to this day.
Broken Windows Policing especially harms African-American and Latino communities, and also harms homeless, undocumented, LGBTQ and low-income New Yorkers on a daily basis. Its detrimental effects compound the challenges vulnerable communities face. What is more, Broken Windows Policing has proved ineffective, particularly when compared with fair alternatives that impose far lower human costs.
We must end the painful era of Broken Windows Policing. Alongside stop and frisk, over-criminalization and over-incarceration, we must end discriminatory practices by law enforcement and our justice system.
Broken Windows Policing links the criminalization and over-policing of communities of color to the excessive use of force. Circumstances where force is altogether disproportionate and unwarranted can escalate with truly tragic consequences. Eric Garner, Michael Brown and numerous others have died because of the broken system of Broken Windows Policing. Broken Windows Policing led officers to put Rosan Miller, a seven-months pregnant woman, into a banned chokehold. Miller’s alleged offense? Grilling on a public sidewalk outside her home. That same banned chokehold led to Garner’s death. Rather than building understanding, Broken Windows Policing builds fear and mistrust.
In 2008, police reportedly made nearly 250,000 stops in New York for what they called “furtive movements,” or what I call, “Walking while Black or Brown.” Only 1/15 of 1 percent of those stops turned up a gun.
Broken Windows Policing is a waste of taxpayer dollars. One court monitoring report found that of the 524 low-level criminal cases in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx observed over a three-month period in 2015, 90 percent of the defendants were people of color and 86 percent walked out of court. Wasted resources.
Broken Windows Policing’s disparate impact on communities of color undermines essential outreach and community-building work, the tenets of community cohesion and public safety. More than 85 percent of New York City misdemeanor arrests in 2016 involved people of color and 90 percent of fare evasion (turnstile jumping) arrests involved people of color. For some arrest categories, the racial bias is even more disproportionate. For example, in 2015 the percentage of misdemeanor marijuana arrests involving people of color in the 71st Precinct was 95 percent.
If New York City really is to be a progressive, sanctuary city for everybody, it has to end Broken Windows Policing. The practice puts immigrants in immediate danger. Every arrest produces fingerprints that are sent to federal law enforcement officials. The continued criminalization of New Yorkers of color is fundamentally incompatible with being a true sanctuary city.
In 2014, police killed at least 287 people who were involved in minor offenses and harmless activities such as sleeping in parks, possessing drugs, looking “suspicious” or having a mental health crisis.
We need to radically rethink our approach to policing and crimes of poverty. The Fare Evasion Bill takes a step in that direction and brings us closer to dismantling Broken Windows Policing by treating fare evasion as a civil matter rather than a criminal matter. Our laws need to approach our residents with more compassion and humanity, especially in at-risk communities. People arrested for fare-beating might end up spending hours or even days in jail. The experience can traumatize individuals and communities alike, building barriers between police and the communities they serve.
According to the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services, the highest number of arrests made by the NYPD in 2016 involved turnstile jumping. We must lift that daunting burden placed on New Yorkers over $2.75. Those arrested are our friends and neighbors, people who might just be trying to get to school or to work or to a doctor’s appointment.
The effort to decriminalize turnstile jumping represents part of a broader initiative to end Broken Windows Policing and the resulting harms caused to communities of color, to police-community relations and to the fabric of New York City life.
We have to protect our babies. We want to be able to tell our youth they can turn to the police if they need help. We want the youth—and our entire community—to have a positive relationship with the police in our community. How can we if our children are stopped and frisked? Broken Windows Policing never looks toward building the positive relations police need with the neighborhoods they serve.
Mayor de Blasio took office with a historic mandate to reform the NYPD. Given the structural deficiencies in the department and the injustices perpetuated by NYPD practices in recent years, changes are essential. If the mayor wants a truly progressive city, he will end Broken Windows Policing.