William Bratton, who licked crime in the Big Apple, is due here next week. He describes the business principles behind his success.
WHEN I was appointed police commissioner by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1994, the department was in disarray and the city’s high crime rate showed few signs of coming down. I was the guy chosen to turn the New York Police Department (NYPD) around.
By the time I left the NYPD, the city’s crime rate was down 27% over two years. The homicide rate alone had plunged by more than 40%.
Interestingly, in comparing my management methods with those of many corporate executives I’ve known over the years, I’ve learned that there are techniques that are equally effective in both the public and private sectors.
Lead the organisation toward goals that matter
The first step in creating a successful business is focusing on clear-cut operational goals. The business of the NYPD is to reduce crime. We went beyond that vague objective by setting clear-cut numerical goals for reducing crime.
Background: When I became commissioner, the NYPD was performing marginally — at best. In business terms, the department was making a small profit — cutting crime by an average of 2% to 3% a year in the four preceding years.
Strategy: We set ambitious crime-cutting objectives for ourselves. For New Yorkers to truly feel safer walking the streets, we had to cut crime dramatically. So, our numerical goal was to reduce crime by 10% in the first year. That gave the entire organisation something very specific and measurable to focus on.
Rebuild the organisation to meet the goal
Setting clear objectives is a powerful first step. But no company can expect to meet its goals if it lacks the right managers or structure.
Our plan: Within one month of taking over, I had replaced most of the senior people at the top two levels of the department with people from lower levels of the organisation, and brought in several outsiders as well. I identified people I felt couldn’t work toward our new goals and replaced them with people willing to accept that change was needed and to work energetically toward meeting our goals.
Next step: We re-engineered the NYPD into an organisation capable of supporting our goals. We established 12 areas that were crucial to meeting our numerical objectives, including such key areas as: personnel; training; equipment; technology; promotions. Then we established re-engineering teams for each of the 12 areas. These terms were made up of the best people from both inside and outside the organisation.
Example: The technology committee brought in top technology people from the private sector. The committee on rewards and promotions included participants from our unions.
Build a success-oriented culture
Any business owner can change the goals of the organisation. But if you don’t change the culture, you’re going to be in big trouble.
Familiar pattern: The old culture of the NYPD was complacent, unfocused, reactive and not used to goal-setting. The prevailing attitude was, “We’re the NYPD. We’ve got crime, but it’s not going up so we’re OK”.
Important: It’s human to resist change. No matter how bad things are, people remain fearful of the unknown. I wanted to create an organisation that believed it needed to do more and was capable of doing more. I wanted a culture that was willing to accept change because change would be seen as a positive, not a negative.
Learn all you can — as fast as you can
You can’t know if you’re nearing your goal if you don’t have systems that continuously measure progress.
Problem: The NYPD gathered crime statistics twice a year, and then only for purposes of reporting to the federal government. None of the information was being used to direct the activities of the organisation itself.
Every organisation needs timely, accurate intelligence. Gathering information twice a year wasn’t timely. It wasn’t accurate. It wasn’t intelligent. What good does it do to find out you had a crime wave three months after the fact?
In the NYPD, we expanded upon this concept and developed a four-step process that became the operating philosophy for the organisation. Those four steps are:
1. Collection of timely, accurate intelligence.
2. Rapid response to identified problems.
3. Use of effective tactics to deal with those problems.
4. Relentless follow-up to analyse the impact of the department’s response.
Useful analogy: Every business has profit centres – — branches for banks, franchises for McDonald’s. The profit centres for the NYPD are its 76 precincts. Information is now gathered from each precinct daily. That forces each “profit centre” to constantly see how it’s doing.
Next step: All information gathered by the precincts is analysed weekly at headquarters. Now you can see emerging trends as they develop … and you can respond with effective tactics that will knock that problem down.
Delegate authority among those with whom it will have the most impact
Only the line managers on the scene — or team leaders out in the field — can take the day-to- day steps to make sure the goals are reached.
The old NYPD approach was micro-management. Everything at the precinct level was done in response to orders from the top. Thanks to layers and layers of bureaucracy and rules, it was clear what the precinct commanders couldn’t do. It was much less clear what they could do to combat crime, disorder and fear.
Solution: We adopted a system of macromanagement and microleadership. We set the goals. We identified the key people who would have to meet those goals. Then we let those key people go off and do it with a clear understanding of what constituted success or failure.
How it works: All precinct commanders — the equivalent of corporate line managers — are given authority within certain limitations to direct their crime-fighting resources as they see fit. They know the department priorities, but they also know the priorities of their neighbourhoods. They are authorised to respond to the priorities of the neighbourhood.
Monitor performance obsessively
The secret to meeting goals is relentless follow-up. For police purposes, New York City is divided into eight large geographic areas — each with nine or 10 precincts. Everyone connected with crime in a geographic area now comes to headquarters about once a month for a three-hour performance review. This process is called Comstat (computer statistical analysis).
To support the Comstat process, the NYPD has a sophisticated computerised pin-mapping system that shows graphically where in the city crime is getting better and where it is getting worse.
Once a month, the senior command staff of the NYPD and I would meet with the top command of each of the eight key geographic areas to review all crime data. If the latest data showed an increase in certain types of crime, the command officers would have to account for the rise. If the reasons were unacceptable, I would make clear that there was a specific amount of time to get back on track toward the stated goals of crime reduction.
Key: Enforced accountability. There was no place for area commanders to hide. They knew we weren’t going away. I gave the commanders the authority, flexibility and responsibility they needed to get their jobs done. Then I held them accountable for doing their jobs in ways they had never been held accountable for before.
Result: Record “profits” for the NYPD in terms of reduced crime. The NYPD has found a way to beat its competition — the criminal element — to create a safer city and improve the quality of life for all.