Bill Bratton — Broken Windows, Stop-and-Frisk, and the Defund Years | Part 1

Heroes Behind the Badge · Sep 22, 2026 · 41m · transcript

Bill Bratton is the only person ever to have led both the New York City Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. He joined the Boston Police Department in 1970 at twenty-three, badge 1190, and over the next five decades he ran six agencies, presided over the largest crime decline in modern American history, and became the most identifiable advocate for a philosophy of policing that is still argued about today. He now chairs the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

He does not open this conversation by defending the profession. Asked what he would warn his younger self about, he…