William Joseph Bratton
CBE (born October 6, 1947) is an American law enforcement officer and businessman who served two terms as the
New York City Police Commissioner (1994–1996 and 2014–2016). He previously served as the
Commissioner
A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something).
In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...
of the
Boston Police Department (BPD) (1993–1994) and
Chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
of the
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) (2002–2009). He is the only person to have led the police departments of the United States' two largest cities – New York and Los Angeles.
Bratton began his police career at the Boston Police Department before becoming Police Commissioner in New York City, where his quality-of-life policy has been credited with reducing petty and violent crime. He was recruited to lead the Los Angeles Police Department in 2002. It was a period when the LAPD was struggling to rebuild trust after the 1991 videotaped beating of
Rodney King, the
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...
, the pervasive Division corruption involved in the late 1990's
Rampart scandal, and the individual
perjury by former LAPD detective
Mark Fuhrman in 1995 that helped produce an acquittal in the
O. J. Simpson murder case. He presided over an era of reform and crime reduction. In January 2014, Bratton returned to the post of Police Commissioner in New York City, and served until September 2016.
Bratton has served as an advisor on policing in several roles, including advising the British government
and is currently the chairman of the
Homeland Security Advisory Council for the U.S. government.
Bratton's policing style is influenced by the