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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“Over a long career, on both coasts, no one has done more for policing and public safety in America’s largest cities than Bill Bratton”, Bharara said.
“In September, Commissioner Bratton will retire from the NYPD”, de Blasio said. At Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, he was a Senior Executive Fellow in Criminal Justice and a member of the school’s National Executive Session on Policing. As police chief of Los Angeles from 2002 to 2009, Bratton expanded the use of stop and frisk.
“It’s what made this city safe in the first place”, Bratton told NPR in 2015. Bratton described the theme of the conversation as “There’s never a good time, but there’s a right time”. He brought quality-of-life policing to NY and developed Compstat, a computer based crime-fighting system. In this initiative, officers are assigned to certain precincts and ordered to mesh with the community on a personal level.
“It was clear the NYPD had to evolve and find a new way forward to meet the needs of every New Yorker”, he told the news conference.
Under former Democratic Mayor David Dinkins, the department put more cops on foot patrols, asked beat officers to focus on long-term solutions rather than quick-fix arrests and recruited tenants as informants against drug dealers in their buildings in the early 1990s.
Bratton served two stints as police commissioner.
Mayor Bill de Blasio struck an optimistic tone at the start of Tuesday’s press conference, choosing to emphasize the accomplishments of the department as opposed to the departure of Bratton.
He took the opportunity to explain his concept of neighborhood policing to people in Astoria.
“There would be an uproar if police were to abandon those neighborhoods, if they were de-policed and abandoned as they were before [Commissioner] Bill Bratton”, said Kelling.
“When you see a policeman, remember he is your friend”, Bratton said.
Despite falling crime rates, the tactic was reviled by civil rights leaders, who said it had a disproportionate impact on minority residents.
Bratton had previously said he would not serve past the end of de Blasio’s current four-year term, which ends next year. He recounted how his 18-year-old son was recently stopped and questioned by police for playing “Pokemon Go” in a Bronx park. For his collaborative efforts in working with US and British police forces, he was recognized by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the honorary title, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).
“They could be nicer”, he said. Joining the brass at 1 Police Plaza, he pioneered new approaches to neighborhood policing – a concrete response to the department’s critics.
The 68-year-old is the only person to head the NY and Los Angeles police – the two largest police departments in the country.
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Then two officers were killed by a gunman who had announced online his plans to kill police in retaliation for Garner’s death.
