NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton will step down from his current post next month and take a job in the private sector, this according to a news conference announcement made Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Commissioner Bratton, who has come under heavy criticism in recent times of his handling for the city’s police force, said that the decision to step down was his own.
NBC New York reports:
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton is stepping down as the city’s top cop, and he will relinquish the reins to Chief of Department James O’Neill in September, Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday. De Blasio lauded the commissioner’s contributions to New York City since taking over the job in January 2014 and praised the man who will replace him, a veteran cop with more than 30 years on the force who grew up in the city and whose experience he said will advance the work of neighborhood policing.
William J. Bratton has worked in the public position as a civil servant for the past 45 years, beginning his police career in 1970 in Boston. Just days ago, Bratton told the New York Times that he intended to serve in the post until 2017. However, sources inside the department stated that Bratton has been negotiating an earlier leave for some time.
Bratton’s public image as New York’s top cop came under fire after the recent Irving Plaza incident, which he lumped Hip-Hop artists and violence together despite being less than critical of his own officers and their negative actions. Bratton will leave the post in mid-September in order to assist O’Neill in the transition.
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