Most people tend to have one of two views on preventing crime. Liberals tend to want to deal with the root causes of crime (poverty, poor education, etc.), while conservatives often want zero tolerance policies to lock up the criminals. The problem is that neither way works. We have overfilled the prisons and only made better trained and networked criminals. Ending poverty seems less and less practical as public safety policy all the time.
Kennedy has developed a way to deal with the worst gun violence and inner city drug markets in a focused way based on what actually happens and what actually works. Every city that has used his methods has seen dramatic and nearly instantaneous reductions in the targeted crimes.
The greatest challenge to the success of this approach is the ideology of citizens and officials (egos, too). Many police struggle to understand how aggressive measures damage relationships with the community and make policing less effective. When personnel changes, new people fail to understand or support the approach.
That's why the book is so important. Citizens, officials, community leaders, mayors, police and anyone who cares about improving the country's most pressing challenge needs to be aware that things don't have to be this way. We don't have to have the problems with gun violence, drugs, and mass incarceration that plague our country.
I plan to buy a bunch of copies and pass them out to people who have the power to do something until someone listens.
(this review is also posted on Amazon)
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