John Buntin, a staff writer for Governing Magazine (90,000 subscribers) and a former case writer at Harvard s Kennedy School of Government, has made a specialty of writing about law enforcement, and in the inner circles of government he is well known as an expert on the subject. His study of how Bill Bratton and Rudy Giuliani reduced crime drastically in New York, and his profile of Boston s successful campaign to rid the city of youthful gun violence both became standard case studies in government courses across the United States. Following Bratton s career when the innovative police chief moved to Los Angeles, Buntin uncovered a history too fascinating and too important to ignore.