"How did it happen? The NYPD focused on low-level crime as never before. It deployed officers in large, concentrated numbers in precisely-defined zones where spikes in violent crime occurred. And it built a counterterrorism capacity second to none to make sure we weren't hit again
All of this, despite a shrinking police headcount (due to recent and post-9/11 economic turmoil). The recipe for success? The application of good police strategy, outstanding work by rank-and-file police officers and new technology - including the Real Time Crime Center, which gets investigative leads into detectives' hands in record time.
Continued focus on graffiti last year was reflected in the fact that, while combined complaints to 311 and 911 were down 9 percent, arrests were up 10 percent. We created a graffiti database that tracked the identities and the signatures of the most prolific "taggers." We went to their homes and learned from arrested associates the identities of other taggers. We even tracked a tagger (who'd joined in vandalizing a parked subway train overnight) overseas and arrested her upon her return to New York. The fact that we elevated graffiti enforcement to an assistant chief in the Chief of Department's office indicates how seriously it was taken.
"A regime that calls the Nazi genocide of the Jews a "big lie" will have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb later this year. Would you bet your life on "tough diplomacy"?