Metro

Bloomberg welcomes new NYPD chief, says he wishes he had same confidence in mayoral candidates

Mayor Bloomberg welcomed the NYPD’s new Chief of Department to City Hall today with another blast at the candidates running to take over City Hall.

After expressing confidence in Philip Banks III as the successor to Joseph Esposito, who retired yesterday as the city’s top uniformed cop, Bloomberg issued some cautionary words about the future.

“I wish I had the same confidence in what I read in the papers for candidates for mayor going forward,” he said.

Most of Bloomberg’s would-be successors are supporting changes to the Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy.

But some, most notably Republican Joe Lhota, are opposed to the appointment of an inspector general at the NYPD.

“If crime were to tick up it would be a disaster for the city,” Bloomberg said at a photo op with Banks and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in the City Hall bullpen.

“The only reason crime has come down is because we have a very well led, a very well trained police department that we fund well and they have policies that work with communities but also make sure we get guns off the street.

“If we have guns on the streets, you have the kind of problems you see other big cities having, and we cannot tolerate that.”

The mayor doesn’t usually speak to the press during photo ops.