By NY Daily News and COLlive
Former New York top cop William Bratton, bounced from One Police Plaza in 1996, is returning as the city’s new police commissioner.
Bratton, 66, was announced Thursday as the new commissioner at the Red Hook Justice Community Center by incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Bill Bratton is a proven crime-fighter,” de Blasio said of his new commissioner. “He knows what it takes to keep a city safe, and make communities full partners in the mission.”
De Blasio said he and Bratton “will preserve and deepen the historic gains we’ve made in public safety” while protecting the civil rights of the city’s 8 million citizens.
This marks the second time that Bratton will succeed departing Commissioner Raymond Kelly as head of the nation’s largest police force.
The newly-named NYPD chief cited three goals: Keeping the crime rates low, working with other agencies to combat terrorism, and creating a “mutual respect and trust” between police and New Yorkers.
During Bratton’s first NYPD tour, felony crime in New York dropped 39%. The incoming commissioner enjoyed similar success during his run atop the Los Angeles police.
Bratton, in a shot at his predecessor, said he would repair the sometime rocky relationship between the NYPD and all the city’s communities.
But insiders were saying that another leading candidate for the job would have done that better – NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks III — the highest-ranking black cop on the force.
Banks hosted this week a Chanukah party at One Police Plaza for officials and activists from Jewish communities in the city (see photos below).
