will be chased and caught. It is when there are no police around that they know they can drive through an area, shoot at people, and get away before the police arrive.
This is not to say that all people who live in low-income areas are criminals or that all the young people in these areas are delinquents, but many criminals and delinquents hang out in these areas, driven by the assumption that they are safe areas where they can do what they like with little or no interference. The people who live there as law-abiding citizens do not fear a police presence because they have nothing to hide. As long as the police do not get overly aggressive and only arrest those who are breaking the law, then they will feel much safer having them around, knowing that if anything does happen, help is not far away. Less gang fights and gang shootings means less innocent people getting hit by stray bullets, less children getting caught in the crossfire. Law-abiding citizens should welcome this.
Zero tolerance of even small infractions of the law sends a message to criminals and delinquents that their behavior will not be tolerated (Greene, 1999). However, the police still have discretionary powers, which are necessary otherwise the public may reject the idea as being too harsh and being discriminatory if only practiced in certain neighborhoods. The police must always maintain a balance so they do not lose the support of the community at large because they need the support of this community for their program of "broken windows" and zero tolerance to work.
In New York City, Bratton introduced the Compstat system of zero tolerance built on four co0ncepts: 1) accurate and timely intelligence, 2) rapid deployment of personnel and resources, 3) effective tactics, and 4) relentless followup and assessment, and was able to reduce felony complaints by 44.3 percent, murders and nonnegligent homicides of 60.2 percent, forcible rape by 12.4 percent, ...