Commentary: Success in other cities shows that a strong police superintendent can reduce Chicago’s violence
As the Justice Department official who was responsible for implementing the 1994 federal crime law, I had a ringside view of changes in U. S. policing in the 1990s. I came to one clear conclusion: The single-most important factor in determining whether cities made real progress in reducing violent crime was the quality of police leadership.
Three cities were the poster children for crime reduction in the ’90s. New York City went from 2,200 homicides in the early ’90s to 650 by 2000; last year, it had 433. San Diego went from
