He came to Los Angeles in 2002, a brash New Englander in a hurry to make his mark and unwilling to mince words.
When a community activist attacked the department, Chief William J. Bratton went on CNN and labeled him a "nitwit." When the City Council refused his request for more officers, he bellowed: "Let them start attending some of the funerals of the victims of crime."
But behind the sometimes in-your-face demeanor, Bratton was also a listener, a skilled politician and -- above all -- an effective cop.
He quietly made his way through South Los Angeles, meeting with black ministers and community activists to talk about race and crime. He demanded that his officers change the way they police and imposed strong discipline for misconduct -- yet he maintained the support of the rank and file.
He presided over a steep drop in crime that left the city safer than it has been in decades. And he managed to persuade two successive mayors to make hiring more officers a top priority -- even when that meant cutting into other programs.
Now, as Bratton is about to leave the city's political stage, some civic leaders expressed concern Wednesday about whether his impressive legacy can be sustained and whether he exited too early.
"I wish he had stayed at least another two years," said Connie Rice, a civil rights attorney and longtime advocate for police reform. "I would not be surprised to see the organization slip back."
Finding a successor with Bratton's skill set -- blunt but empathetic, an old-fashioned cop who believes computer databases can make streets safer -- is going to be difficult.
Bratton came to L.A. in 2002 already a law enforcement superstar who appeared on the cover of Time magazine in the '90s for his success at reducing crime as New York's police commissioner.
Among his top priorities was replicating those efforts in his new town.
Bratton harbored an almost religious belief that police can drive down crime -- that, in his words, "police count." His theory was controversial, with many social scientists discounting the idea that police can be as effective as social forces in reducing crime.
But Bratton viewed Los Angeles, where violent crime was rising when he arrived, as a perfect laboratory for his ideas.
He demanded that commanders use computer-generated crime data to better focus their resources in hot spots. And he identified areas where he wanted to beef up police presence, such as Hollywood and skid row.
