Ex-NY police chief: Scotland Yard should publish list of 10 most violent gangs Bill Bratton, who also led the police in Boston and Los Angeles, said rather than being an encouragement, naming the worst gangs was a deterrent to their growth. Mr Bratton caused controversy recently by describing the scale of Britain's gun crime problem as "laughable" in comparison to that of the US. Mr Bratton told London's Evening Standard: "Los Angeles had 400 gangs and the majority you don't hear about but what we said to the gangs was: "If you want to raise your profile, we're going to give you that publicity." You might think that the gangs would love that kind of publicity but they didn't. Some think that the glorification was exactly what the gangs wanted but we did not find that. Scotland Yard is understood to have a list of London's most dangerous gangsters but has so far declined to publish it because of the risk it might glorify crime. Last week, it was reported that the Metropolitan police unit tasked with tackling gun crime in black communities is to be overhauled to focus on targeting teenage gangs.