Supporters said Bratton’s approach made NY the safest big city in the United States.
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If that timetable sounds rather fast, it might be because Bratton made the decision in short order. He rose to become Boston’s police commissioner in 1980.
He was reappointed NY police chief in 2013 by Mayor Bill de Blasio and steps down as the United States is roiled by controversy over deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police and high-profile killings of officers.
De Blasio hailed Bratton’s contributions as “inestimable” and said he had “tremendous faith” in O’Neill’s neighborhood policing initiative. “I would argue that we are farther along in New York City than most places to meet it”.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s swift appointment of Bratton in 2014 was a positive sign to many in the business community, some of whom feared a softer approach to crime from the self-proclaimed progressive.
“We must always remember that whenever you see a policeman, he is your friend”, said Bratton, reading a passage from a book he first checked out of the library 56 years ago. Bratton’s departure comes at a time when police agencies around the country are under intense pressure to address questions about racial bias and the excessive use of force.
By comparison, O’Neill is admired within the department, but unknown on the national stage.
Bratton will be succeeded by James O’Neill, the chief of department.
Bratton, 68, acknowledged that now is a “challenging time” for policing, but he said things were headed in the right direction.
New York City’s Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is expected to announce his resignation Tuesday following a heated protest calling for his firing and an end to police brutality. When Bratton was first appointed, Sharpton said he told the mayor his feelings about him were “not very positive”, referring to Bratton’s first stint as the city’s commissioner under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration. He has served in Transit Districts 1, 3 and 11; the 25, 44, 52 and Central Park Precincts, the Firearms Training Section, the Police Academy, Warrant Section, SATCOM Detective-Narcotics Operations, the Vice Enforcement Division, the Narcotics Division, the Fugitive Enforcement Division, and the Office of the Police Commissioner.
William Bratton has twice served as the New York Police Department’s commissioner. And incoming commissioner O’Neill knows it best, vowing Tuesday night to continue to expand community policing so that cops on the beat will know the community because they work in it every day.
Tucker relayed his conversation yesterday with O’Neill, when told about Bratton’s resignation. His most recent positions were chief of patrol, in which he led a whole bureau of officers, and chief of department, which is the highest-ranking uniformed officer.
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De Blasio was elected as a sharp critic of another police tactic called stop-and-frisk, which involved stopping and searching huge numbers of people, overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.
