The Crime Fighter: Putting the Bad Guys Out of Business

Description

Beginning in 1993, the number-one strategist in the war against crime was an overweight dandy with a big mouth, a fixture on the celebrity scene at Elaine's restaurant, and worst of all in the eyes of his critics, a former lieutenant in the despised New York City Transit Force -- a subway cop who wore spats and a homburg and drank champagne on ice. But newly appointed Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple was also an extraordinarily tough and brilliant cop, who had risen through the ranks by being relentless, fearless, and clever. As a young officer, he constantly got in trouble for making too many arrests (too much paperwork, said the bosses), and as a transit detective, he pioneered the fabled decoy squad that made the subways safe again in the late 1980s. Most important, Maple had ideas -- ideas that would transform New York City and change the way people think about crime.Maple knew from his twenty years on the force that stopping crime was not the priority of the police -- unbelievable, but true. He was determined to revolutionize how crime is fought -- how cops go after crooks, and how they prevent crime from happening in the first place. And he did. Within two years, the seemingly explosive crime rate was going down -- fast: murders down 50 percent, crime overall by 39 percent. And by 1998, the number of murders in New York City was lower than in 1964! "The Crime Fighter" tells the reader how crime can and should be attacked. Laced with fascinating, incredible, and often humorous tales of Maple's adventures as a cop, the book is as entertaining as it is informative. Anyone interested in how criminals think and act, and how the police should do their jobs, will devour "The CrimeFighter".