New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton predicts his officers will have a million fewer law enforcement contacts with the public in 2015 — based primarily on dramatic drops in stop-and-frisks, summonses and marijuana busts, reports the New York Daily News. “I'm not interested in quantity,” Bratton told the paper on Wednesday. “I'm interested in quality.”
Bratton said he believes the less intrusive approach can repair the fractured relationship between the cops and black New Yorkers, resulting in what the commissioner called “a peace dividend.” Fewer arrests and fewer summonses mean fewer New Yorkers on Rikers Island. And it means less animosity between the police and the public, he said. “This is what the community is talking about: Don't think of every black kid walking down the street as a potential criminal,” Bratton said.