Metro

Police commanders shifting focus from crime to traffic safety

Mayor de Blasio’s push for “zero” traffic fatalities in the Big Apple has NYPD commanders facing “a nightmare” as they shift their focus on shootings and robberies to include reckless driving, sources told The Post.

Commanders are worried that their weekly ­TrafficStat meetings, at which they are grilled over incident numbers in their precincts, are going to turn into ordeals.

“Traffic fatalities have replaced homicides, or is running neck and neck, as the top priority,” the source said.

“The word is that [TrafficStat] is going to be much more intense — it’s going to be like a nightmare.”

The commanders have long gotten stressed out over the weekly CompStat meetings, where they are questioned about the numbers of major felony crimes in their precincts, including instances of murder, assault and robbery — but with homicides at a historic low, the mayor is pushing Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to stress more aggressive policing of traffic violations.

De Blasio campaigned on a “Vision Zero” pledge to try to eliminate all traffic deaths, and he ordered immediate measures after 11 people were killed, seven of them pedestrians, on city streets in the first two weeks of the year.

Last year, there were 286 traffic fatalities citywide, a number that includes drivers, passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians. That’s up 3.2 percent from 2012, when there were 277 traffic-related deaths.

Conversely, murders have continued to decline, with 334 in 2013, compared with 419 in 2012, according to data released by the NYPD.

Some senior cops say demanding a crackdown on something like jaywalking is out of synch with the public, since almost all New Yorkers do it occasionally.

“It’s retarded,” one said. “People are going to jaywalk, and when they get stopped, they’re going to get combative.

“This is going to turn out badly,” he added. “It’s going to be like [former Commissioner] Ray Kelly’s stop-and-frisk.”

Bratton hinted at a change in priorities at the most recent CompStat meeting Thursday, when he said he had been misquoted in news stories about an 84-year-old man who was bloodied when he was arrested for jaywalking on the Upper West Side.

Bratton made clear he didn’t come down on the local precinct commander for the incident. Instead, he said, he commended him for taking the initiative and not waiting for orders following the third pedestrian death this month on West 96th Street.

Another source said cops are not being told to chase speeding drivers instead of investigating more violent crimes, such as robberies and shootings, but “there is definitely an emphasis” on cracking down on moving violations and DWIs.

Since being named commissioner, Bratton has given upbeat speeches and hinted at changes to come.

Last Thursday, the top cop’s comments at the weekly CompStat meeting were live-tweeted from the official NYPD Twitter account. Then, after he left, his top aides grilled some of the eight south Queens precinct commanders who were in the meeting.

A senior supervisor said it was too early to tell if CompStat meetings will be easier on commanders than under Kelly. But he said, “They never call you down there to tell you’re doing a good job.”

Additional reporting by Natasha Velez