Shawdesh desk:

The report highlights that the Times Square was a place of squalor in the 1990s until former Mayor Rudy Giuliani cleaned up the area. In between the 1960s and 1990s, the area was a hotbed for unlawful activities and sexual crimes, with sex shops doing business there. William Bratton who was the NYPD commissioner at the time, is worried that the old situation might return if remedial measures are not adopted at the earliest.

“A lot of people are worried about [Times Square] collapsing. And unless they start getting it together for a rebuild, it might actually collapse,” said Bratton.

“We had a lot more to work with than the current commissioner and the mayor have in 2023,” added Bratton.

The former NYPD commissioner also highlighted how the law enforcement agencies had come together in the 1990s to “clean up” the Times Square.

“There was a lot more of a criminal justice system back then. The courts, district attorneys, and the police were pretty much united about doing something about crime in Times Square. So you had a collaboration that is not in place today,” said Bratton.

By contrast, “we [now] have a number of district attorneys not wanting to deal with a lot of … the so-called ‘broken windows’,” signs of social disorganization and lead to crime, highlighted Bratton.

“Until we get better collaboration between various elements of government, we’re not going to see it improve dramatically,” he added. Notably, NYPD data shows that there has been a big increase in “major crime” in the Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Madison Square Garden, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.