This week I’m joined by Peter Moskos, professor of sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of Cop in the Hood, In Defense of Flogging, and the forthcoming Back from the Brink: Inside the NYPD and New York City’s Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. Peter has long been a voice of reason on policing and criminal justice, and his latest book is dropping at just the right time. With violent crime in New York City up compared to the 2010s and random subway attacks making national news on a weekly basis, Peter provides a valuable oral history of the city’s historic crime reduction in the ‘90s. I invited Peter back on the show to talk about how—and if—that achievement can be repeated today before the gains made thirty years ago are erased completely.
Peter gives an account of what’s gone wrong in the last decade of policing in New York, including misguided enthusiasm for police defunding and abolition. He argues that we would do well to remember what went right in the 1990s, including crucial changes to how, when, and where cops work. Racial disparities in arrests and stops led to criticisms of the NYPD, but is there any way to avoid those disparities? He argues that pretextual stops—when they’re carried out properly—are a very useful tool that police need to do their jobs. And finally, he notes that the officers he interviewed for Back from Brink are very proud of the work they did, and explains what some of them think of Darren Wilson and Derek Chauvin.
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0:55 Peter’s new book, Back from the Brink: Inside the NYPD and New York City’s Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop
5:27 Why policing went off the rails over the last decade
11:03 Peter: I’m done with police abolitionists
19:22 Why don’t we hear about unarmed black men getting shot anymore?
22:00 Remembering the lessons of ‘90s New York
28:07 Dealing with the racial disparity problem
35:46 Is there a suicide problem among cops?
39:31 The Ferguson Effect
43:12 The utility of pretextual stops
48:29 The pride felt by the 1990s NYPD
50:30 What cops think of Darren Wilson and Derek Chauvin
Recorded January 10, 2025
Links and Readings
Peter’s forthcoming book, Back from the Brink: Inside the NYPD and New York City’s Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop
Peter’s book, In Defense of Flogging
Peter’s book, Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District
Tracy Mears on police legitimacy and the future of policing
Heather Mac Donald’s book, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe
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