"Supercop" hitting out at critics

Former US police chief Bill Bratton has hit out at critics opposing the UK Government's consultation of foreign experts to improve British policing following violent rioting across England. Bratton, who will next month advise the Government on gangs and crime in the wake of the disorder, indicated the UK needed to learn lessons from other countries if its own forces are to move forward. "Anyone who looks only inwards is not going to be as successful as someone who looks outside, the world over. It's a big world out there," he said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper Monday. The appointment of the former New York police commissioner was attacked over the weekend by Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, who said the UK had no lessons to learn from gang-ridden America. But "supercop" Bratton said Sir Hugh himself was successful as an Englishman coming in as an outsider to run the police in Northern Ireland. "I find it ironical, the hue and cry about outsiders," he added. Bratton also said he could lead British policing out of "crisis", reduce crime despite budget cuts, and bring about "transformational" change in the aftermath of the disorder. "The Met is having its share of issues and leadership crises, certainly. It is a mirror image of when I went into the New York and Leos Angles, and both those cities turned out quite well," he said. "I've been an outsider in every department I've worked in. Bureaucrats change processes, leaders change culture. I think of myself as a transformational leader who changes cultures." The 63-year-old, who is now a security consultant, added "You can run around saying, 'The sky is falling in, the sky is falling in,' or you actually do something about it. You have to play the hand you're dealt. I've always dealt initially with budget cuts. "Out of crisis come opportunities. If you want to speed up the process of change, nothing does it better than a good old crisis." Speaking about the vacant Metropolitan Police commissioner job, Bratton said "If it was open to people other than British citizens, it would be something I would seriously consider. I understand the Home Secretary is adamant in opposing that." Over the past two decades Bratton has gained a reputation for introducing bold measures to reduce crime, heading police departments in New York, Boston and Los Angeles. In his first two years at the helm of New York Police Department reports of serious crime dropped 27 percent.