Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio announced his appointment of William Bratton as the new commissioner of the New York Police Department on Thursday. This will be the second time Bratton has led the NYPD in almost 20 years. He will succeed the current NYPD commissioner, Raymond Kelly.
Bratton is a "proven crime-fighter," de Blasio said in a statement, The Washington Post reported. The Mayor-elect stressed that he and Bratton will work to maintain the City's historically low crime rate.
"We will do it by rejecting the false choice between keeping New Yorkers safe and protecting their civil rights," de Blasio said. "This is an administration that will do both."
The 66-year-old has lead both the Boston and Los Angeles police departments. He led the NYPD the first time under Mayor Giuliani from 1994 to 1996. This second appointment makes Bratton and Kelly the only NYPD commissioners to serve two terms.
Bratton is credited with diminishing crime 39 percent when helmed the NYPD, the largest police department in the country, the New York Daily News reported.
He was a driving force behind CompStat, a tracking system that allows the police to best distribute resources where crime is high. Bratton also is known for his broken windows theory- criminals who commit small crimes will eventually commit bigger ones- The Washington Post reported.
Bratton becomes commissioner again at a time when things are uneasy for the NYPD. A judge recently ruled the controversial stop-and-frisk tactic contributed to racial profiling. The NYPD will have answer to an outside, impartial monitor.
Bratton said this time around he will work to fix the waning relationship between the NYPD and New Yorkers.
"That is my commitment to this mayor," Bratton told reporters. "I love this profession, and I love this city."
