Ray Kelly has had a long line of critics over his last 12 years as NYPD commissioner, but there’s not a single thing he would do differently, the top cop told The Post on Friday.
“I can’t see any failures. This is a job where you have to respond, by definition, to crises,” Kelly said in a 14th-floor Command Center inside Police Headquarters. “I don’t see any major errors that I would say we needed to do over.”
But when Kelly was asked about the two most high-profile — and questionable — cases of his second term, he quickly punted to Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr.
When asked about Dominique Strauss-Kahn — the former IMF chief who was charged with sexually-assaulting a maid in a Manhattan hotel room — Kelly said it’s not his fault the case was dropped when prosecutors found the alleged victim unreliable.
“Disappointed? No, because we did what we had to do here. We arrested an individual. He was brought to justice. We got him off the plane,” Kelly said of the May 2011 arrest of Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested on charges he attacked Nafissatou Diallo in his suite at the Sofitel Hotel in Midtown. “Obviously, the District Attorney’s Office probably is the right place to ask their opinion.”
Kelly also tiptoed around questions about the Etan Patz case in which schizophrenic Pedro Hernandez was charged last year with the 6-year-old boy’s 1979 kidnapping and murder.
Hernandez had confessed to the crime but later recanted. Sources have said there has been no physical evidence.
Longtime suspect José Ramos was found responsible for Patz’s death by a judge in a 2004 civil case. When asked how the civil case complicates the criminal case against Hernandez, Kelly shot back, “That’s really as far as the prosecution is concerned. That’s really in the purview of the district attorney.”
Kelly also discussed the demise of Osama bin Laden, but warned that his death has only strengthened al Qaeda.
“[Bin Laden] was certainly an important force in the world of terrorism. Ironically, in many ways, al Qaeda has gotten stronger even after his demise because of the franchise operations in places such as Yemen and Maghrib in North Africa,” he said.
The commish also referred to 9/11 architect and Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as a “significant threat.”
“I think it would be a good thing to eliminate him. He is directing certain operations,” Kelly said.
Kelly only had kind words for his replacement, newly minted Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
“He’s an experienced — probably the most experienced police executive in the United States,” Kelly said of Bratton. “He’s been here before. I’ve had conversations [with him], but I think it best to keep it between us.”
Kelly had dinner with Bratton at the Harvard Club on Wednesday night, police sources said.
The two dined alone for about an hour.