How a Transit Cop Revolutionized Policing in New York City
TLDR Jack Maple, a transit cop in 1980s New York City, used innovative tactics such as undercover decoy units and crime mapping to significantly decrease subway crime and target repeat offender robberies. He also created a system called ComSTAP to track every crime and hold police chiefs accountable, leading to a drop in overall crime rates in the city.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Pedro Serrano, a former cop, describes how he was pressured to write summonses for low-level offenses instead of pursuing serious crimes.
03:59
Pedro and Edwin discover that the reason for the unjust arrests and warrants is due to a computer program called ComSTAP that measures and controls the actions of police officers.
07:52
Bill Courtney, a retired cop, describes the dangerous and chaotic environment of New York City in the 1980s, where he and his fellow officers felt powerless to make a difference, except for Jack Maple, a transit cop who believed he could fix the city's problems.
12:06
Jack Maple, a transit cop, found a loophole that allowed him to leave the subway during his lunch break and he used this time to patrol Times Square, where he believed he was getting an education in crime and honing his skills in catching pickpockets.
16:31
Jack Maple, a transit cop, survived a close-range shooting and became determined to make a difference in the city by targeting repeat offender robberies on the subway, particularly the "wolfpack robberies" where large groups of people would mob and attack victims, leading him to create a decoy unit with cops dressing up as different types of victims to catch the perpetrators.
20:15
Undercover cops dressed as subway passengers, including one wearing an ugly Playboy bunny sweater and another dressed as a punk rocker, would engage in activities like rolling joints and selling them to each other on the train to make themselves appear more believable as non-cops, and when perpetrators would attempt to rob a decoy victim, the undercover cops would arrest them, leading to a significant decrease in wolfpack robberies on the subway.
24:07
Jack Maple's crime mapping system, which showed crime by time and location, allowed the police to identify patterns and specific areas of crime, leading to a significant decrease in subway crime and the identification and arrest of criminal overachievers.
28:16
Jack Maple realizes that the police department only focuses on solving crimes that happen to rich or white people, and he wants to change that by making every crime, regardless of the victim, a priority.
32:09
Jack Maple creates a system called ComSTAP that tracks every crime in every precinct and holds police chiefs accountable for their crime data in weekly meetings, which makes them uncomfortable and reveals their lack of knowledge.
36:06
Jack Maple and his system ComSTAP successfully reduced crime rates in New York City, leading to a significant drop in murders and felony crimes.
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