The Broken Windows Theory of policing seems like a great policy on paper, but in the real world, it isn’t as easy to implement. First of all, having enough officers on the streets and enough surveillance to be able to catch every small crime seems very problematic. Moreover, claiming that one group of people/area seems to have more crime than another is just another reason that the police can use as an excuse to use “police force.” As both “Giuliani Times” and “Quality of Life Policing” discuss, police brutality increased when this policy was implemented in New York City. That’s because police had a reason to be suspicious of certain people and if these people did anything that could be categorized as a crime, it would be and if “necessary” police force would be used. It is completely unfair how loopholes, or in this case, vague language in the laws can lead to so much violence. This is actually an ongoing cycle, police believe that people are committing crimes, they act in accordance by being harsher to these people, and the people who may not be committing crimes know that the police believe them to commit crimes anyways, so those people go ahead and commit crimes. It’s a psychological principle called the self-fulfilling prophecy and is not the right way to enforce laws in a city.

Question: Is there any way to have a balance of policing in the city?