Bill Bratton is back as New York City’s top cop — replacing Ray Kelly with a vow to remain tough on crime while repairing frayed relations between the NYPD and the city’s minority communities.
“I cannot even begin to thank Mayor-elect [Bill] de Blasio for the opportunity he and his administration provided me to return to this profession,” Bratton, 66, said at a news conference in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
“I am pleased to return to an administration that has spoken so much about what I’ve attempted to do in 46 years, to bring the police and community together,” said Bratton, a Vietnam vet who also served as Los Angeles police chief and Boston police commissioner during his celebrated career in law enforcement.
“I will get it right again in New York City,” he said.
While staunchly backing de Blasio’s vow to improve community relations, Bratton made it clear he also backs stop-and-frisk — which the mayor-elect has harshly criticized.
“Stop-and-frisk is essential to every police department in America. But it’s also essential that it be done constitutionally and respectfully. And that is my commitment to this mayor and to the city, that it will be done that way,” Bratton said.
“As police commissioner of the City of New York, I will work very hard, move very quickly, to once again bring legitimacy and trust to the citizens of this city who feel they don’t have it.”
The Boston native also predicted rank-and-file cops would welcome the change in leadership after Kelly’s latest stint, which began in January 2002. Kelly also served as commissioner from 1992 to 1994.
“I’ve talked to a lot of New York cops on the subways and on the streets, and they want change,” he said. “So I think we’ll be able to work very, very well together.”
Outgoing Commissioner Kelly congratulated Bratton — but didn’t mention de Blasio — in a brief statement. “Today, our city is safer than ever before with historic decreases in crime, including record-low shootings and murders, and I am confident that record of safety will continue,” he said.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who clashed with Bratton during Bratton’s two-year tenure under him, said, “There’s no police professional out there who is better.” He added that de Blasio’s decision is “a more moderate approach. He’s moving toward the middle.”
De Blasio gushed about his new top cop.
“This is a great day for New York City,” he said, vowing over and over that Bratton would repair what he called a lack of trust between the NYPD and the city’s minority communities because of stop-and-frisk.
“The way to fight crime, to ensure safety, is [working] with the community,” de Blasio said. “Public safety and respect for the public are not contradictory ideas; they are complementary ideas that go hand in hand.”
The incoming commissioner said his top priorities would be to maintain the city’s record-low crime rates achieved under Kelly during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, to work closely with the feds to thwart terror plots, and to improve police-community relations.
He said he would also focus on motor-vehicle fatalities, which he noted are roughly as high as homicide rates.