Metro

Bloomberg to veto Quinn’s plan to rein in NYPD

Mayor Bloomberg today promised to veto legislation that would create a new investigative body to probe the NYPD – saying “election year politics” was being used to undermine public safety.

Bloomberg said Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn’s legislation to establish an inspector general’s office to probe police crime fighting policies was akin to having “two police commissioners.”

He called the plan “irresponsible” and “dangerous” and said it threatens policing strategies – like stop and frisk – that have driven crime to record lows.

“This bill jeopardizes that progress and puts the lives of New Yorkers and officers at risk,” Bloomberg said during the opening of Seattle-based Sabey’s nation’s largest high-rise data center at 375 Pearl St. Downtown.

“We can’t revert to where we before,” the mayor said.

“It wasn’t very long ago more than 2,200 New Yorkers were murdered in our streets, our parks our subways and apartment buildings in one year,” said Hizzoner. “New York was the murder and crime capital of the nation back then.”

“Today we are the safest big city in the nation – and we have one of the lowest incarceration rates.”

The crime reductions, he said, are responsible for record tourism and business development.

“The lesson of our city is the lesson we learned the hard way. But is a lesson that too many people. I think today in elective office already have seem to forgotten,” Bloomberg said.

“We cannot afford to play election year politics with the safety of our city and we cannot afford to roll back the progress of the past 20 years.”