US Attorney General Eric Holder paid an unpublicized visit to Mayor de Blasio on Wednesday — spending 30 minutes with the man whose police department Holder’s office could soon oversee.
The two men discussed crime prevention and “respecting civil rights and civil liberties,” according to a Justice Department spokesman — in the context of stop-and-frisk.
They also talked about ways to improve police and community relations, according to the mayor’s office.
“We had a good meeting” is all the Bronx-born Holder would say on his way out of City Hall.
In June, the nation’s top law-enforcement official argued in court filings that if a Manhattan state judge found the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk unconstitutional, a federal monitor should be appointed to oversee the department.
That judge did find the practice to be unconstitutional and the case is under appeal.
De Blasio, a candidate for mayor at the time, agreed.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled against the NYPD and subsequently appointed lawyer Peter Zimroth as monitor. The case is currently under appeal.
The City Council separately passed a law in August requiring that an inspector general be named for the NYPD.
That appointment, by the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, is due by late March.