The Broken Windows theory has some merit not in its effectiveness in policing, but rather its encouragement to maintain a relationship between the police and the community. The argument that the Broken Windows theory tries to make, namely that disorder, if left unaddressed, will lead to more serious crime, is a seemingly reasonable assumption but one that is too open to interpretation. Personal prejudices can quite easily be used to interpret “disorder” in a way that can quickly lead to profiling against minorities. The use of quotas would only exacerbate this problem. Eventually, a distrust of the police in these more heavily targeted communities would grow, as we have seen in recent years. One possible alternative to Broken Windows could be a reworking that removes this idea of attacking “disorder” and priorities instead the community based aspects of the policy. Community policing is such a philosophy that emphasizes the relationship between the community and the police by assigning police to communities and having them work with the members of those communities to identify and address problems. This personalized policing policy is being applied to the NYPD under Commissioner James P. O’Neill, who hopes it will help mend relations between communities and officers. The effectiveness of this new policy, however, has yet to be evaluated, but there has been less emphasis in the media about abuse of power by police or protests by groups such as BlackLivesMatter.
-Pooneet Thaper
