If He Can Fight Crime There, He'll Fight It . . . Anywhere
Bratton, Of New York Cleanup, Works in South America
March 8, 2001

By Marc Lifsher

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Government and business leaders in this capital city atop South America, confronting murder and robbery rates that have soared 30% over the past two years, are looking to former New York City crime fighter William J. Bratton.

Mr. Bratton and the mayor of Caracas on Sunday signed a nine-month, $180,000 contract to see whether the "take back the streets" tactics for which the ex-New York police commissioner won acclaim might work as well here as they did in Times Square and the financial district.

Mr. Bratton, New York's top cop for 27 months, from 1994 through 1996, is credited with developing an enforcement policy that helped cut homicides by almost 50% and serious crime by 39%. His philosophy was to pounce on infractions like graffiti spraying and turnstile jumping, which he felt bred "fear and disorder" in neighborhoods and opened the door to more serious crime.

Venezuelan executives worry that crime will keep driving down investments and increasing security costs. They believe Mr. Bratton and his New York consultancy, the Bratton Group, can "tropicalize" his earlier triumph, says Ignacio Salvatierra, president of the Venezuelan Banking Association, which is funding the initial consulting contract. Such technical assistance, if properly tailored to Venezuela's particular problems -- including poverty, unemployment, underemployment and class antagonism -- "could be a model for improvement in the whole country," he says. Leaders of prominent Venezuelan companies have promised Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena that they will provide funds for future initiatives, such as the creation of a "business improvement district" like the one used to clean up Times Square.

In Caracas, the Bratton Group hopes to build on similar work it has done in Brazil and then translate that experience into new projects in Argentina, Chile and Mexico, where Mr. Bratton is already active lecturing on criminal-justice topics and consulting with political candidates on their anticrime platforms.

Elected officials across the continent have only recently begun confronting the rising crime and public outrage that "scared the hell out of us" in New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s, says Mr. Bratton. The Bratton contract, Mayor Pena says, marks the beginning of a major public-private commitment to fighting delinquency "house by house and building by building."

Crime in Venezuela has reached a new height, says Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ivan A. Simonovis, with more than 7,000 violent deaths reported last year. Some 150 people were murdered during the recent long weekend celebrating Carnival, police say.

Mayor Pena says the Bratton contract, though financed entirely by the private sector, has the full backing of the nationalistic government of President Hugo Chavez Frias. The president, who often tangles with the U.S. on foreign policy issues, last week publicly scolded the State Department for issuing a report criticizing Venezuela's record on human rights and police brutality.

The Caracas contract, Mr. Bratton says, is similar to an agreement struck in 1997 between the Bratton Group and the Brazilian state of Ceara. That project, a three-year effort to improve public safety, led to the development of a model police precinct in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city of Fortaleza. New techniques, including computerized crime reporting systems, better cooperation among police agencies and consistent investigative work, helped lower crime in the coastal, touristic city of two million, Mr. Bratton says, adding that a second contract probably will be signed in the next few weeks. Says Bill Andrews, a member of the Bratton team who worked with the commissioner as a crime analyst and communications specialist both with the New York Police Department and the Transit Police: "We want to go back there and really do a full-court press."

©2001 The Wall Street Journal