NEW YORK (AP) – New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton is resigning his post atop the nation’s largest police force, after a tenure in which he received credit for keeping crime down and navigated tension between police and minority communities.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday that Bratton will retire next month, and that James O’Neill, the department’s top chief, will succeed him. Bratton had said last month that he would not remain head of the NYPD past the end of de Blasio’s current term in 2017.
“We will never forget or fail to honor the achievements of Bill Bratton,” the Democratic mayor said, calling the commissioner’s contributions to the city “inestimable and extraordinary.”
De Blasio also heralded O’Neill as someone who would lead a push toward neighborhood policing, or trying to build trust and working relationships between police and communities. Under Bratton, the city already has made plans to shift toward the neighborhood policing strategy. O’Neill has been heavily involved in those efforts, and de Blasio said neighborhood policing would be in place in 51 precincts as of this fall.
A Brooklyn native, O’Neill has risen through the NYPD’s ranks for over 30 years, starting as a patrolman in the transit system. He has been chief of department, the department’s highest uniformed position, since November 2014.