George Kelling, this year’s speaker, is faculty-chair of the Police Institute and a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University.

His well-known “broken windows” theory of policing was first articulated in a piece co-written with James Wilson and published in Atlantic Monthly in 1982. Kelling’s conclusions had a nationwide impact on the practice of law enforcement.

The theory posits that small signs of neighborhood disorder – such as broken windows and graffiti – create psychological conditions for more serious crimes. One of the suggested remedies is community policing, which he has studied extensively. In naming Kelling its “Person of the Year” in 2003, Law Enforcement News, which is published by the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, the magazine said the “broken windows” is “rightfully considered … one of the three foremost ground-breaking ideas in criminal justice over the past two decades.”

He has published influential op-ed pieces in the New York Times, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Newsday and numerous other media outlets.

Kelling’s education includes a B.A. in philosophy from St. Olaf College, an M.S.W. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of Wisconisn-Madison.

Most recently, Kelling has been working with Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton – with whom Kelling formerly teamed in New York City when Bratton was chief there – to apply “broken windows” and its response strategies to L.A.’s crime issues. Kelling also earned wide praise last year for commenting that the national security strategy should focus on police as the primary source of terrorism prevention.