At a press conference at City Hall on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that Bratton is stepping down in September.
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo lamented the impending departure of NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, giving rare praise to a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.
“It is now time for me to move on”, said Bratton, who in his 45 years with the police, has managed to lower crime, shooting and homicide rates, and has provided his department with new technology, equipment and training to deal with terrorism, as he recalled in his announcement. De Blasio quickly announced that Chief of Department Jimmy O’Neill would be promoted to the job being vacated by Bratton.
De Blasio called O’Neill “the ideal person to succeed” Bratton and cited O’Neill – the architect of the neighborhood policing program – as the leader who can sustain the “deep and consistent bond between police and community” that the city is working toward. James O’Neill, now the Chief of Department, will take over as the new commissioner.
He was promoted to sergeant in 1987 and worked his way up to the commanding officer of the 25th and 44th precincts, which he said helped instill his belief in neighborhood policing to fix the sometimes fractured relationships between police and communities.
Bratton also oversaw the Boston and Los Angeles police departments and was briefly considered by then-British Prime Minister David Cameron for the London police chief job in 2011. Even so, the mayor and both commissioners referenced the NYPD’s failures and a new approach to policing that would take place under O’Neill’s reign. The protesters also demanded restitution to the survivors and victims of police brutality and that the city’s police budget be redirected to minority neighborhoods, CBS New York reports.
Bratton, who led the department in the 1990s before returning in 2014, noted that he was leaving at a fraught point for police-community relations but said he felt confident in the department’s future.
The governor had little say about Bratton’s successor-to-be, current Chief of Department James O’Neill.
“The issue of race and community – we’re on a journey but it’s not a journey unique to New York City”, Bratton said.
Bratton is in his second stint as commissioner in NY.
Some critics said the aggressive philosophy eventually gave rise to the “stop-and-frisk” tactic used extensively under Raymond Kelly, who served as commissioner under de Blasio’s predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, from 2002 to 2014.
“We’ve tried to redefine our relationship from being the police to being your police”, Mr Bratton said.
“I’m honored to have this opportunity to further serve this great city and the world’s best police department”, O’Neill said. “And whether it’s personal life, professional life, that’s something in my life I always try to do”. The firm was founded by Douglas Band, a former aide to President Bill Clinton.
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As tensions between the police and minorities have grown, the mayor, were he to be re-elected next year, will likely be under pressure by his liberal allies to select a more progressive candidate, and likely a commissioner of color.
