British Prime Minister David Cameron has sought advisory help from a US 'supercop', credited with taming New York City's rampant violence in the 1990s, to address the issue of street unrest and gang culture in England.
As Britain looks for ways to deal with gang culture that is being blamed for the violence witnessed in a number of cities, Cameron spoke to 63-year-old former New York police commissioner Bill Bratton on phone.
Bratton confirmed that he received a call from Cameron last night, the Guardian reported. The 'supercop', who is credited with cleaning up New York, will soon enter discussions with officials over the terms of a contract. Downing Street said he will not be a long-term paid consultant and would not be formally appointed to any UK police force.
The former chief of the Boston, New York and Los Angeles police departments said: ‘You can't arrest your way out of the problem’. More than 1,500 people have been apprehended on allegations of rioting, arson and looting in England so far.
The role would involve advising ‘a number of different agencies’, including the Home Office, and that it would focus on gangs rather than issues of police reform, Bratton was quoted as saying by ‘The Financial Times’.
He said arrests were appropriate for ‘the most violent’, but the issue was of society as a whole. Rioters ran amok on the streets of London and other English cities, with the riots claiming five lives and destroying the livelihood of many.
The violence that started in London last weekend, spread to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham, with many shops vandalised and looted. "What they are looking for, from me, is the idea of, what has been the American experience in dealing with the gang problem and, what has worked for us and not worked for us and how that can be applied," Bratton said in another news report.
He was New York City's police commissioner for 27 months, from 1994 to 1996, and was credited with achieving record declines in crime. Bratton is now the chairman of Kroll, an international private security firm.