In New York, major crime complaints fell when cops took a break from 'proactive policing'

When New York police officers temporarily reduced their "proactive policing" efforts on low-level offenses, major-crime reports in the city actually fell, according to a study based on New York Police Department crime statistics.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, put a crack in the "broken windows" theory of policing that has become a mainstay of many urban police departments.

"Order maintenance policing," a type of proactive policing, is informed by the "broken windows" theory - the idea that by fighting smaller crimes, it's possible to create a "lawful" environment that helps deter the more serious crimes. It's an idea that was put to use in the 1990s by former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton (who also served as Los Angeles police chief from 2002 to 2009).