More importantly, Bratton engineered a full-scale shift within the NYPD about how police officers view their role. For years, they'd been seen as responders to crime -- the causes of crime were seen as completely out of their control. They thought of themselves, in Bratton's words, as report-takers.
But Bratton helped the cops come to understand their integral role in preventing crime as well. It's that fundamental paradigm shift that has allowed the crime reductions Bratton oversaw in the early 1990s to continue to this day.
But I was even more impressed by some of the stats Bratton shared from Los Angeles, where he's been police chief since 2002.
In the six year's since Bratton took office:
--homicide is down 44 percent
--robberies are down 23 percent
--overall violent crime is down 49 percent
--gang homicides are down 57 percent
--overall gang crime is down 25 percent
If that's not proof that Bratton's data-based approach to reducing crime is an effective tool, then I don't know what is.