Bratton will be succeeded by the NYPD’s top uniformed officer, Chief James O’Neill, a commander who joined the NYPD in 1983.
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“We’ve developed an intense bond over these 31 months and I’m happy for his future”, de Blasio said.
Bratton, 68, began his career as a patrolman in Boston in 1970 and built a resume unmatched in local law enforcement, heading police departments in Boston, Los Angeles and NY.
Bratton will stay on the job until mid-September to ease the transition to the new commissioner, he said.
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton is leaving the nation’s largest police force, after a tenure in which he received credit for keeping crime down and navigated tension between police and minority communities.
“When you see a policeman, remember he is your friend”, Bratton said. The division will provide risk identification, prevention and response advising.
Bratton has led the NYPD since 2014.
Bratton also served as superintendent of Boston’s Metropolitan District Commission Police from 1986 to 1990 before being named commissioner for the Boston Police Department.
He is known for his aggressive efforts to combat crime in the 1990s, in accordance with “broken windows theory”, which advocates dealing strongly with low-level anti-social behaviour as a way to prevent more serious crime.
Bratton, 68, will be replaced by Chief of Department James O’Neill, a source told the The Wall Street Journal, information that was confirmed by an NBC 4 NY source. Newsweek in 1996 called him “an global poster boy for crime-fighting”.
“Policing is, like so many other professions, constantly in the state of evolution”.
Bratton wasn’t forced out. “‘I just want to know, you are hanging around right?’ Of course I’m hanging around”. “Again, American policing is being challenged in revolutionary ways to build trust in communities that have lost trust in us”. Then they had a two-hour conversation.
O’Neill, who has been the chief of department since November 2014, said the push for the neighborhood policing initiative gained strength after two Brooklyn officers were shot dead in December of that year.
Josmar Trujillo, the leader of protest group New Yorkers Against Bratton, welcomed the news of Bratton’s departure. O’Neill says the department needs to evolve and adapt to changing trends in order to proactively address crime. He filed a formal complaint. The New York Civil Liberties Union condemned the incident.
Bratton, Mayor de Blasio and O’Neill all credit community policing tactics with helping drop the city’s crime rate to record lows. “Talk is cheap and our communities are exhausted”.
“In September, Commissioner Bratton will retire from the NYPD”, announced De Blasio, who called Bratton’s contributions to law enforcement “inestimable and extraordinary”.
As news broke, protesters could be heard celebrating with chants of “Nah nah nah nah!” He also was praised for improving the LAPD’s relationships with the city’s many diverse communities.
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Bratton expressed that his resignation is not a benevolent replacement for a firing.
