NEW YORK – The career cop picked to lead America’s largest police department is embracing a throwback strategy to repair the deep rift that has opened between officers and the public. He wants patrol officers to get to know people on their beat on a first-name basis.
James “Jimmy” O’Neill was introduced Tuesday at City Hall as the next commissioner of the New York Police Department.
When he takes over next month, O’Neill will inherit challenges that vexed his well-known predecessor, William Bratton, who announced that he is quitting to take a job with a corporate consulting firm.
Crime statistics in the city have never been better, but officer morale is an issue as is the level of distrust between officers and minorities, especially black New Yorkers.
In announcing O’Neill’s selection, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would be tasked with expanding a “neighborhood policing plan” the department first unveiled last year amid tensions stirred by the police chokehold death of Eric Garner and the subsequent ambush slaying of two NYPD officers by a suicidal gunman out for revenge.