In William Bratton’s place comes Chief James P. O’Neill.
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William Bratton made it clear that he was not leaving due to retirement. Just days ago, Bratton told the New York Times that he meant to serve in the post until 2017.
Bratton is in his second stint as commissioner in NY. After all, a new Quinnipiac Poll shows 60 percent of the city approves of how its officers do their job – and even more approve of the policing in their own community. Then, in 2014, Bratton promoted O’Neill to become part of his executive staff. Bratton will be replaced by NYPD Chief of Department James O’Neill who was born and bred in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Those are features of the Neighborhood Coordination Officers program, which puts cops in specific communities to identify and respond to problems.
“Regarding the issue of race and community relations, we’re on a journey but it’s not a journey that’s unique to New York City”, he said.
“It is now time for me to move on”, Bratton said, who plans to “pursue other opportunities”, not in government, but didn’t specify them during the presser.
Bratton’s resume is unmatched in local law enforcement.
Mr Bratton, who led the department in the 1990s before returning in 2014, noted that he was leaving at “a challenging time for police in America and NY, even though all indicators are pointing in the right direction”.
O’Neill became chief – the top uniformed NYPD cop – in 2014, in the nascent days of the Black Lives Matter movement, which protested the police killings of black men.
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. His career has largely been defined by an aggressive approach to fighting crime in NY in the 1990s.
O’Neill has served for over 30 years The next commissioner began his career in the NYC Transit Police Department in 1983.
Bratton’s stature was both an asset and a liability for the mayor.
“I don’t think he’s gonna do any better”, said Wayne Newton, a 51-year-old barber from the Bronx. The death of Eric Garner, who died at the hands of police on Staten Island in 2014, sparked protests in NY and across the nation.
During the conference, it was revealed that Bratton notified De Blasio of his decision to step down in early July. He began his career as a police officer in Boston in 1970 and went on to lead law enforcement agencies in Boston, Los Angeles and NY.
He brought a prominence and political savvy to the nation’s largest police department that equipped him to deal with outsized expectations.
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“Every time I walk down the street, I feel that they could kill me and that they are not going to be held accountable in any way”, he told the station. His brash style – which doomed his first stint as commissioner under then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani – went unabated under de Blasio, as evidenced Tuesday in his description of de Blasio’s reaction when he invited the mayor into his office and broke the news that he was leaving the NYPD.
