Let’s call in COMPSTAT originators

THE EDITOR: It is commendable that Colonial Life Company has demonstrated a commitment to making the society safer and it was good that former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted the invitation to visit Trinidad and offer their suggestions on crime fighting. Even more encouraging is the report that acting Commissioner of Police Snaggs is impressed with the programme known as COMPSTAT. Mayor Giuliani deserves credit for the crime reduction in New York because it was under his watch that success was achieved. However, it is prudent to be guided by historic facts. It was former Commissioner William Bratton’s ingenuity, in collaboration with Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple and the computer expert, John Yohe, that COMPSTAT was born.

That system enabled the tracking of crime and held police commanders accountable for identifying and reducing crimes in their districts. Mayor Giuliani tried to hog all the credit and resented the celebrity status enjoyed by Mr Bratton. The coup de grace was when the Commissioner’s photograph appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1996 and the marriage ended a few months later. Mr Kerik is an authority in his own right but should not be superimposed into a photograph which was developed before his arrival on the scene. It seems to me that in order to learn more and to implement COMPSTAT, the Police Department must engage the services of the originators. I would think that the Police Service Commission and governing regulations prohibit the Police Department from accepting funding from a private company lest the Police be under the influence of and beholden to a commercial entity.

Mr William Bratton is now Commissioner of the LAPD. His COMPSTAT and other innovative methods have resulted in LA being one of the safest cities in the US today, and the corruption and brutality which pervaded the department is now reported to be under control. If Prime Minister Manning is sincere about doing everything he can to reduce crime, and there is no reason to believe that he is not, he should provide, immediately, additional funding for equipment and to contract with the real experts who invented the system to come to Trinidad to establish the programme and to train senior police officers in the science. Of course, it would be most advantageous to contact LAPD Commissioner Bratton as a first step. This is the time to act. Failure to do so would render disingenuous the administration’s vow to combat the crime problem. I shudder to think that I will hear the excuse that Police Reform legislation must be a precursor to taking the recommended action. Excuses will not solve the problem.

SELWYN P NIMBLETT
Brooklyn NY