The Crime Fighter : Putting the Bad Guys Out of Business

Why the crooks are on the run...and how to keep them running.

The number one strategist in the war against crime is a colorful dandy with an attitude, a fixture on the celebrity scene at Elaine's restaurant, and, worst of all in the eyes of his critics, a former lieutenant in the despised New York City Transit Force--a subway cop who wears spectator shoes, bow ties and a homburg, and drinks champagne on ice.

But former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple was also an extraordinarily tough and brilliant cop, who rose through the ranks by being relentless, fearless and clever. As a young officer, he constantly got in trouble for making too many arrests (too much paperwork, said the bosses), and as a transit detective he pioneered the fabled decoy squad that drove criminals out of the subways in the 1980s. Most important, Maple had ideas--ideas that would transform New York City, then other cities, and change the way people think about crime.

Maple knew from his twenty years on the force that stopping crime was not a priority of the police--unbelievable but true. Crooks worked nights and weekends, but the cops didn't want to. Vast areas of the city were written off by the police--because they thought they were lost forever. Too bad about the citizens who lived there.

Maple was determined to revolutionize the way crime is fought--how cops go after crooks, and how they prevent crime from happening in the first place. And he succeeded. Two years after Maple became Deputy Commissioner, the seemingly explosive crime rate was going down--fast: murder rate down 50 percent, crime down overall by 39 percent. And by 1998, the number of murders in New York City for the year was lower than in 1964. After his program was implemented in New Orleans, the violent crime rate in America's most dangerous city was cut in half between 1996 and 1999--and results were even better in Newark.

But Maple is not satisfied. In The Crime Fighter he tells the reader how crime can and should be attacked. Laced with fascinating, incredible and often humorous tales of Maple's adventures as a cop, the book is as entertaining as it is informative. Anyone interested in how criminals think and act, and how the police should do their jobs as servants of the people, not as an occupying force, will devour this absorbing book.

Jack Maple began his career as a New York City Transit Patrolman and rose to become Deputy Commissioner of the NYPD. Since leaving the department, he has served as a consultant to police departments worldwide. He lives in New York City.

Chris Mitchell, a writer and reporter, lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.