In the Media

Police Commissioner William Bratton's imminent departure from the NYPD is reigniting a debate around a set of police reform bills with widespread support in the City Council. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the ofllowing report.

Police officers will be expected to offer a business card after searching someone and in some instances, be required to ask for permission before conducting a search at all. Both are reforms the NYPD agreed to adopt in a deal reached with the City Council last month.

Many believe that the biggest responsibility of the Mayor of New York City is to keep people safe and Bill de Blasio has largely done that, in no small part by letting his lightning-rod police commissioner, Bill Bratton, call the shots on public safety policy. The mayor has focused on pre-kindergarten and affordable housing while Bratton has governed the streets, helping bring crime down to historic lows.

Incoming Police Commissioner James O’Neill said he’ll stick to a controversial deal with the City Council on identification and search rules — prompting a clash with some police reform advocates before he’s even started the job.

O’Neill, the current Chief of Department who will take over for Bill Bratton, said he’d stick to the deal his predecessor made to avoid a vote on two bills called the Right to Know Act.

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio met reporters at City Hall to announce police commissioner Bill Bratton's retirement Tuesday, he stressed the department's shift toward what he called "neighborhood policing," a strategy that encourages officers to engage with people who live in the communities they're patrolling.

"We've tried to redefine our relationship from being the police to being your police," Bratton said.