William J. Bratton Quotes

I still have admiration for the vast majority of police officers, but there is no denying that some are guilty of mistreating the people they are supposed to serve.

It is monstrous that courts should aid or abet the law-breaking police officer.

Do I acknowledge that there are some law enforcement officers that abuse their job? Yes.

Police are supposed to protect and serve, but sadly, they protect their self-interest first and foremost.

Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?

When you have police officers who abuse citizens, you erode public confidence in law enforcement. That makes the job of good police officers unsafe.

Let me be clear: as I have said repeatedly, I do not believe that all police officers are bad, nor do I believe that most are bad. But there must be a transparent, impartial and fair system to judge those that engage in criminal or unethical acts.

American police departments, by and large, are less corrupt than any other police departments in the world.

There are 18,000 different police forces in the United States and sometimes something wrong happens.

I don't want the books to become PR exercises for the police; I want to have the freedom to write about cops who cross the line: bad cops.

No officer should be allowed to behave as if they are above the law just because they are responsible for upholding the law. Permitting and protecting even the smallest acts of abuse by a tiny fraction of our officers leads to a culture where extreme acts of abuse are more likely, just like what happened to Laquan McDonald.

There's a bigger percentage of good cops than bad cops. But the bad cops should be penalised like regular people.

An abusive cop does not equal a bigoted police department.

I'll be honest with you: I think that it's really difficult, this framing around 'good cops' and 'bad cops.' Policing, as a system, is incredibly corrupt, period.

Over the years, Western governments have been criticized for working with foreign police who have proved abusive or corrupt.

I've always had a natural fear of the police, or abuse of their power.

An honest cop still can't find a place to go and complain without fear of recrimination. The blue wall will always be there because the system supports it.

Criminal conduct by police officers, federal agents, and their confederates cannot be tolerated and will be met with the full force of the law.

We're not anti-police... we're anti-police brutality.

Police have been given the very confusing and unpleasant task of being society's char cleaners ... so they lie and stick together.

It is especially jarring when police officers are the killers because they are an entity of the state itself, so when the state shows a lack of sensitivity, community members feel it is an obvious example of abuse..

When police are shutting down cameras, it is a sign that they know the truth is not going to be kind to them.

The way police do what they do is under the microscope. You've got people on the one side saying, 'We need to be holding our police accountable.' And you've got a lot of people who support the police saying they're being 'unfairly vilified.'

Every American expects and deserves the protection of law enforcement that is effective, responsive, respectful and, most importantly, constitutional.

I've spent my life in the police profession, and I'm proud of that. But I am also very cognizant of the profession's limitations, its potential for abuse, and its potential negative impact.