Yesterday was a big day for New York City and the NYPD. It was announced that Chief of Department James P. O’Neill will succeed Bill Bratton as NYPD commissioner (see the video below). There is so much information about Bratton and O’Neill, let us clear it up for you:
- Bratton has served as commissioner of the NYPD since 2014, and is credited as one of the architects of “broken windows” policing
- Broken windows policing: Where urban disorder and vandalism (e.g., broken windows) generates and sustains additional and more serious crime.
- His tenure as Commissioner has seen some of the lowest crime rates in New York City history.
- Bratton’s tenure has been marred by tensions with the public and a standoffs between the NYPD’s biggest union and the mayor.
- Bratton will move on into the private sector. He will join the company Teneo as the senior managing director and executive chairman of a newly formed risk management division.
- O’Neil will start when Bill Bratton steps down as NYPD commissioner in September.
- O’Neill began his career in the New York City Transit Police in 1983.
- He was appointed to chief of patrol in 2014 and became chief of department later that year.
- James P. O’Neill was the architect of the NYPD’s “community policing” program.
- Community Policing: Where officers are assigned to precincts with the goal of engaging the community to create trust between police and residents. The program has widely been seen as a success and it has helped bring crime statistics down.
- In O’Neill’s own words, the strategy lowers “crime, but not at the expense of losing the vital support of the people we are sworn to protect and serve.”
- Mayor de Blasio said of the next commissioner: “Jimmy O’Neill has built a national model for bringing police and the community together to fight crime, […] As the top-ranking uniformed member of the NYPD, Jimmy has spent each day ensuring that New York City remains the safest big city in America.”
- The soon-to-be former commissioner Bill Bratton had this to say about O’Neill “Few understand the human side of policing better than Jim O’Neill […] Bratton said. “As chief, his innovative NCO program is not only making communities safer, it has brought police and the people together.”
- He was appointed to chief of patrol in 2014 and became chief of department later that year.
There is never a good time to go, but there is a right time. My video message to the NYPD, w/ @NYPDChiefofDept https://t.co/mB9SIaXp1w
— Commissioner Bratton (@CommissBratton) August 2, 2016
Featured image source: [youtube]