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Hard-eyed, hefty (5 ft. 10 in., 200 Ibs.) Steve Kennedy, appointed commissioner three years ago after a 26-year police career, still considers himself a cop. Says he: "J. Edgar Hoover doesn't like the term. I think it fits." Before he became commissioner, Kennedy went up through the uniformed ranks from patrolman to chief inspector, earned a reputation as a cold-shouldering loner who avoided department cliques and seldom mixed with other policemen. He has been a disciplinarian since he made sergeant, a trouble-shooter since he made captain, an enemy of time-honored police petty graft (e.g., Christmas gifts) since he entered the department.
Whistles & White Gloves. As police commissioner, Kennedy commands a force whose area covers 320 sq. mi., all of it except The Bronx on islands (see map), where one-twentieth of the U.S. population clings to one ten-thousandth of the U.S. area, where existence can verge on pandemonium if subways stop, elevator operators strike, or the bridge and tunnels to New Jersey and the world fail to function.
Covering this complex is a police department more than double the size of the U.S.'s next largest, i.e., Chicago's 10,700. It guards 6,033 miles of street and another 578 miles of waterfront. It staffs 81 precincts, most of them responsible for a population the size of a fair-sized city. It rides 762 radio cars around the clock, a fleet so vast that seven separate networks are necessary to move police radio traffic. There are as many New York sergeants (1,609) as there are policemen in many a good-sized U.S. city. No fewer than 2,400 white-gloved traffic cops are needed to whistle and wave on 1,540,000 New York vehicles and 600,000 visiting trucks and cars a day.
As top officer of this force, Kennedy holds a general's power over the men and women in his command. He approves every appointment, promotion or transfer, puts a black mark against cops who use outside influence to finagle favor. Kennedy has ordered mass transfers to break up station-house cliques, to shake up cops who allowed numbers-game rackets and bookie parlors to go unreported in their precincts, or to wake up policemen sinking into familiar and comfortable ruts. Says he: "You don't solve things by fiat, but by knocking heads together.'' New York cops give Top Cop Kennedy a top accolade. Most common estimate: "He's a real bastard."
Boys Won't Be Boys. To the chagrin of a generation of social reformers, Kennedy has turned the same toughness on juvenile delinquency. He has good reason. Last year arrests of juveniles, i.e., the seven-to 15-year bracket, were up 20% for felonious assault, 36% for robbery, 15% for grand larceny. Over the last five years, under-16 crime has climbed 105% last year involved nearly 10,000 youngsters.
Arrests of youthful offenders, i.e., the 16-to 20-year-olds, increased 42% in the same period; one of every ten New Yorkers arrested in 1957 belonged to that age group. But Kennedy, like many another thoughtful New Yorker, is alarmed not only by statistics but also by the moods behind them. Hard-pressed minorities account for much of the violence; e.g., Negroes constitute about 10% of the population, are responsible for roughly 30% of its juvenile and youth crime record, while Puerto Ricans represent approximately 6% of population and 10% of such crime.