Law enforcement

James B. Comey, Unlike Other F.B.I. Directors, Takes On Controversial Issues

As a federal prosecutor in two of the country’s most violent cities in the 1980s and 1990s, James B. Comey pioneered some of law enforcement’s most aggressive tactics that put gang members behind bars for long sentences, and he believes, saved many lives.
But as F.B.I. director for the past two years, Mr. Comey has witnessed a major rethinking of that period, much of it by the Justice Department and the White House. President Obama and other administration officials have described law enforcement efforts from the time as “mass incarceration.”