Crime pro: City needs backup  As Stockton's crime problem flared
like malaria over the years, and seemed just as incurable, I
occasionally wondered - WWBD?  What Would Bratton Do?  This
week, I got to ask him.  William J. Bratton, the famous police
chief who in the 1990s drastically reduced New York City's
rampant crime, is now one of America's most sought-after police
consultants. He's been working for Oakland. He visited Stockton
this week.  "The situation here is very doable," Bratton said.
But he immediately zeroed in on the most obvious problem: not
enough cops.  "You have - at 1.1 police per thousand residents -
probably one of the smallest police departments in America for a
large city," Bratton said.  This we do. According to the FBI
Uniform Crime Reports, in the entire U.S., only Bakersfield and
Santa Ana have a lower cop-to-citizen ratio.  Boston, where
Bratton started out, has twice Stockton's population. But seven
times the number of cops, 2,200. By Boston standards, Stockton
would have 1,050-1,1