[6] Bratton has served as an advisor on policing in several roles, including advising the British government[7] and is currently the chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council for the U.S.

He advocates having an ethnically diverse police force representative of the population,[9] being tough on gangs and maintaining a strict zero tolerance policy toward anti-social behavior.

From there, he served in the Military Police Corps of the United States Army leaving in 1970 to pursue a career in law enforcement.

[11] In October 1980, at the age of 32 and ten years after his appointment to the BPD, Bratton was named as the youngest-ever Executive Superintendent of the Boston Police, the department's second highest post.

Critics have argued that CompStat has created perverse incentives for officers to allow crimes to go unreported,[13] and has encouraged police brutality, citing that complaints by citizens that involved incidents where no arrest was made or summons was issued more than doubled during the Giuliani administration.

[16] The experiences of Bratton and New York Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Maple were used as the inspiration of the television series The District.

[19] In March 2009, Councilman Herb Wesson proposed an amendment[20] to the City Charter, allowing Bratton to serve a third consecutive term as Police Chief.

On September 11, 2009, he was awarded with the honorary title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II "in recognition of his work to promote cooperation between US and UK police throughout his distinguished career".

[21] On August 12, 2011, Bratton said he was in talks with the British government to become an adviser on controlling the violence that had affected London the prior week.

He said he received a phone call from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, and that he would continue speaking with British officials to formalize an agreement.

The New York Times reported that at Bratton's swearing in on January 2, 2014, the new Police Commissioner praised his predecessor Raymond Kelly, but also signaled his intention to strike a more conciliatory tone with ordinary New Yorkers who had become disillusioned with policing in the city: "We will all work hard to identify why is it that so many in this city do not feel good about this department that has done so much to make them safe – what has it been about our activities that have made so many alienated?

[28] In 2009, after stepping down from his post in Los Angeles, Bratton moved back to New York City to take a position with private security firm Altegrity Risk International.

[29] On September 16, 2010, Bratton became the chairman of Altegrity, a corporate risk consulting firm that declared bankruptcy after defrauding the US Government of millions of dollars.

[34] Bratton and George L. Kelling wrote a joint essay in which they outlined a difference between the two: Critics use the term "zero tolerance" in a pejorative sense to suggest that Broken Windows policing is a form of zealotry—the imposition of rigid, moralistic standards of behavior on diverse populations.

Broken Windows is a highly discretionary police activity that requires careful training, guidelines, and supervision, as well as an ongoing dialogue with neighborhoods and communities to ensure that it is properly conducted.

Bratton supported reducing it on the grounds that it was causing tension between the police and minority groups and that it was less needed in an era of lower crime.

[35] In 1998, Random House published his memoir Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic,[37] written with co-author Peter Knobler.