B.A., Hampshire College (Urban Studies and Cultural Anthropology), 1989
Ph.D., City University Graduate Center (Sociology), 2001
Our Faculty
Courses
3331 Blacks Criminal Just System
2102 Contemporary Social Theory
2502 Blacks in Amer Crim Just Syst
5101 Indep Supervised Res I
Alex Vitale
Profile
Alex Vitale is Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project. He has spent the last 30 years writing about policing and consults both police departments and human rights organizations internationally. Prof. Vitale is the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics and The End of Policing. He is also a frequent essayist, whose writings have been published in The NY Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Vice News, Fortune, and USA Today. He has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, PBS, Democracy Now, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
Alex Vitale teaches courses in criminology, sociology of law, social movements and political sociology. His research interests include community policing, the policing of demonstrations and civil disorder, urban politics and economics, and social movements.
Education
Selected Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
Books and Publications
"Dix facons d'eviter le recours a la police et de rendre nos collectivites plus sures." In Gwendola Ricordeau ed. 1312 Raisons d'abolir la Police. Lux Editeur.
"Misguided Strategy: New York City's Decision to Criminalize Gangs." in David Brotherton. ed. Routledge International Handbook of Critical Gang Studies. Routledge.
"Grenzen der Polizeireform." in Abolitionismus: Ein Reader. Suhrkamp Verlag.
"Public Sociology: The Task and the Promise." in Ten Lessons in Introductory Sociology. Oxford University Press.
"Tompkinsville Park." in A People's Guide to New York City. University of California Press.
El Final del Control Policial. Capitan Swing.
Fim do Policiamento. Autonomia Literária.
La Fi de Control Policial. Tigre de Paper.
The End of Policing: Updated Edition. Verso.
End of Policing (Korean). Yoonseong Publishing Company.
The End of Policing. (Mandarin). Zhejiang University Press
"Houston Police Want to Target Gang Violence, It Won't Work." Houston Chronicle. January 29,
"The Limits of Police Reform," in Walter S. DeKeseredy and Elliott Currie eds. Progressive Justice in an Age of Repression:Strategies for Challenging the Rise of the Right. Routledge.
The End of Policing. Verso Press.
Vitale, Alex S. and Brian Jordan Jefferson. 2016. ?The Emergence of Command and Control Policing in Neoliberal New York.? In Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton eds. Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter. New York: Verso.
"At Last Night?s Solidarity March, the NYPD ?Came Out Swinging.?" The Nation. April 30, 2015.
"DOJ report fails to address Ferguson?s major problems: Community policing reforms will not help communities of color." Al Jazeera America. March 12, 2015.
"Don?t count on Loretta Lynch to tame the police." Al Jazeera America. April 30, 2015.
"Obama?s Police Reforms Ignore the Most Important Cause of Police Misconduct." The Nation. March 6, 2015.
"Two Very Different Ways to Punish Killer Cops" The Nation. May 5, 2015.
"Why are New York cops shaming homeless people?" Al Jazeera America. August 16, 2015.
"A Short History of Cops Terrorizing Students." The Nation. October 28, 2015.
"No, Protests Against Police Brutality Are Not Increasing Crime." The Nation. September 3, 2015.
"How to End Militarized Policing: We can undo the policies facilitating police violence in Ferguson." The Nation, Aug. 18.
"Paying in Blood for Over-policing: Broken Windows is the new Stop and Frisk." The Daily News, July 18.
"Suited for Subversion (Ralph Borland)." Design and Violence. Museum of Modern Art. Oct. 1.
"The Neoconservative Roots of the Broken Windows Theory." Gotham Gazette, Aug. 1.
"What Does it Mean to be Anti-Police?" The Nation. December 23, 2014.
"The Rise of Command and Control Protest Policing in New York City." The New York City Police Department: The Impact of Its Policies and Practices. Eds. John Eterno and Eli Silverman. CRC Press.
"5 Books: Who Polices the Police?" The Nation. December 23, 2014.
"Jammed Up: Bad Cops, Police Misconduct, and the New York City Police Department." Contemporary Sociology 43:5, September.
"Urban Radicalism: A Review of Harvey's Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolutions." Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 25:1, March.
Review of Jammed Up: Bad Cops, Police Misconduct, and the New York City Police Department. In Contemporary Sociology.
"Repressive Coverage in an Authoritarian Context: Threat, Weakness, and Legitimacy in South Korea's Democracy Movement." Mobilization: An International Journal 18.1: 19-39.
Review of The Policing Web, by Jean-Paul Brodeur. Social Forces 90.4.
"NYPD Greets Evidence of Mishandling of Occupy Protests With Shameful Closed-Door Policy." AlterNet. Aug. 7.
Review of Shut Down the Streets: Political Violence and Social Control in the Global Era, by Amory Starr, Luis Fernandez and Christian Scholl. Working USA 15:3, September: 453-55.
"Direct Action Gets the Goods." Civic Institute [Instytut Obywatelski]. Warsaw, Poland (in Polish), Oct. 14.
Vitale, A., H. Kim and N. Choi. "A Case Study on the Korean National Police's G20 Protest Policing." The Journal of Police Policies 25.2, December: 27-53.
"NYPD and OWS: A Clash of Styles." Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America. New York: Verso Books.
"The Safer Cities Initiative and the Removal of the Homeless: Reducing Crime or Promoting Gentrification on LA's Skid Row." Criminology and Public Policy, November.
"The Politics of Protest Policing." Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change, and Social Justice. Eds. Kathleen Korgen, Jonathan White and Shelly White. Pine Forge Press.
"Policing Protests in New York City." Urbanization, Policing and Security: Global Perspectives. Eds. Gary Cordner and Dilip K. Das. Boca Raton, Fla.: Taylor and Francis. 275-300.
City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics. NYU Press.
"The Command and Control and Miami Models at the 2004 Republican National Convention: New Forms of Policing Protests." Mobilization 12.4, December.
"Rights and Wrongs at the RNC: A Special Report About Police and Protest at the Republican National Convention" contributor. New York Civil Liberties Union.
"From Negotiated Management to Command and Control: How the New York Police Department Polices Protests." Policing and Society 15: 283-304.
"Innovation and Institutionalization: Factors in the Development of 'Quality of Life' Policing in New York City." Policing and Society 15: 99-124.
Review of Reclaiming the Streets: Surveillance, Social Control and the City, by Roy Coleman. Contemporary Sociology.
"Arresting Protest: A Special Report of the NYCLU on NYC's Protest Policies at the 2/15/03 Antiwar Demonstration in NYC" contributor. New York Civil Liberities Union.
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Vital Projects Fund, The Politics of Policing and Climate Change. $45,000.
BRESI Student Research Mentoring Project $18,000
Police Free Schools, Antelope Valley, Movement For Black Lives. $21,000
Vital Projects Fund: Policing and Social Justice Project. $115,000
Vital Projects Fund: Policing and Social Justice Project. $175,000.
Vital Projects Fund: gang Policing in New York City. $200,000
PSC-CUNY grant Research assistant on ?The Limits of Policing: Improving Public Safety without Coercion. $3,500.
Herbert Kurz Chair Student Research Assistant project support for "Abolitionist Policing."
"Citizen of the City Award" Police Reform Organizing Project, Urban Justice Center. June 6.
Tow Travel Award, for "Policing the G20."
Fulbright Scholar Fellowship, for "Public Order Policing in Seoul, South Korea."
PSC-CUNY Research Grant, for "Evaluating the Community Justice Model: The Brooklyn Justice Project."
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
"Alternatives to Policing." "Breaking Broken Windows Conference" CUNY Graduate Center. April 7.
"On Resisting Arrest" Policing and Mass Incarceration. La Guardia Community College. April 14.
"The Thin Blue Line: Policing Post Ferguson." St. Louis University School of Law:February 20, 2015.
"To Protect and Serve? Broken Windows Policing, Gentrification, and the Murder of Eric Garner." College of Staten Island: February 10, 2015.
"Ferguson Is Everywhere: Policing and the Criminalization of Communities of Color." Leitner Center for International Law and Justice, Fordham University School of Law. January 20, 2015.
"Reducing the Impact of Policing on NJ Communities." November 18, 2015. New Jersey State League of Municipalities. Atlantic City, NJ.
"The Indignities of Overpolicing: Micro Regulation and the Changing Nature of Police Violence." Violence and the City. May 8: Murphy Institute, CUNY
"The Limits of Liberal Police Reforms" County College of Morris. April 9, 2015.
"From Staten Island to Ferguson: The Crisis of Police Legitimacy in (Post) Racial America." The Wolfe Institute for the Humanities. Brooklyn College. Oct. 20.
"Race, Police Use of Force, and the Law." Adelphi University," Garden City, NY December 8, 2014.
"The Conservative Roots of Broken Windows Policing." Police Reform Organizing Project. Ethical Culture Society. July 31.
"The Political Landscape of Policing Reform in New York City." Conversations with City Breakfast Series. Colin Powell Center. University Club. March 13.
"The Roots of Broken Windows Policing." VOCAL-NY. Aug. 28.
"Managing Defiance: The Policing of the Occupy Movement." Law and Society Association. Boston. May 30.
"Managing Defiance: The Policing of the Occupy Wall Street Movement." Eastern Sociological Society.
"Are We Safer? Costs, Benefits and Alternatives to 20 Years of Aggressive Street Policing Tactics." Herbert Kurz Panel.
"Building the Legitimacy of Human Rights Fact Finding: International Human Rights Fact-finding in the Twenty-first Century." Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU Law School. Nov. 2.
"New York's Crime Decline in the Age of Stop and Frisk." Museum of the City of New York. May 8.
"Stop and Think: Guest Panel on Stop and Frisk." The Student-Alumni Association of Empire State College. SUNY Empire State. April 25.
"Managing Defiance: Protest Policing and the Occupy Wall Street Movement." Vera Institute of Justice. New York, Feb. 15.
"Occupy Wall Street and the Right to Protest: What's Next?" New School for Social Research. New York, Oct. 26.
"OWS and the Right to Protest, a Sociological Perspective." Benjamin N. Cordozo School of Law. New York, Jan. 24.
"Policing the Occupy Protests: How Well Did Cities Respond." Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service, Suffolk Law School. March 7.
"An Analysis of Protest Policing by the Korean National Police During the G20 Summit in November 2010." International Symposium on the Korean National Police's G20 Public Order Policing. Korean National Police University. Feb. 21.
"Homelessness in New York City: From Short-term Emergency to Entrenched Social Problem." Yonsei University Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 15.
"Police Innovation in Seoul, South Korea." Society for the Study of Social Problems. San Francisco. Aug. 9.
"The New Urban Punitiveness: The Rise of Anti-homeless Policies in San Francisco." American Sociological Association. Boston, August.
Professional Leadership
Appointed to the New York State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
Other Professional Activities
"The Civil Rights Implications of "Broken Windows" Policing in NYC and General NYPD Accountability to the Public." New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. March.