NY police chief to step down in September
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Bill Bratton, perhaps the most high-profile police officer in the United States, will step down as New York police chief in September, after less than three years back on the job.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Bratton’s departure, hailing his contributions to the city and to law enforcement nationwide as “inestimable.”
He will be replaced by James O’Neill, New York police chief of department.
“In September, commissioner Bratton will retire from the NYPD and we have found the prefect person to succeed him,” the mayor told a news conference.
“We celebrate a transition filled with continuity and shared vision.”
Bratton was appointed New York police chief in December 2013 for a second time, tasked by de Blasio with keeping crime at historic lows but also repairing frayed relations with ethnic minorities.
Policing in America has been under a microscope for much of that time, roiled by nationwide protests over deaths of unarmed black men in custody and a series of high-profile killings of officers.
Bratton was police commissioner of Boston and first served as New York police chief under Republican mayor Rudolph Giuliani from 1994 to 1996.
He was a key figure in imposing “zero tolerance” policing in the 1990s credited with slashing crime. As police chief of Los Angeles from 2002 to 2009, Bratton expanded the use of stop and frisk.
The 68-year-old is the only person to head the New York and Los Angeles police — the two largest police departments in the country.
He was even once approached to take charge of London’s Metropolitan force and then British prime minister David Cameron sought advice from Bratton on dealing with gangs in the wake of the London 2011 riots.