Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's pick for Police Commissioner prompted a range of reactions across the city Thursday.
Prominent New Yorkers, the police unions and civil rights groups at loggerheads with the NYPD over "stop-and-frisk" policing all weighed in on the selection of former top cop Bill Bratton to replace outgoing Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
• "I had a long phone conversation yesterday with Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio about his choice of Bill Bratton as the next Police Commissioner of New York City, and I spoke this morning with Bill Bratton. I have worked in both adversarial and positions of alliance with Bill Bratton, and I shared my views on both with Mayor-elect de Blasio and him.
When Bill Bratton served in New York City under Rudy Giuliani, we had a very distant and adversarial relationship, but when he served in Los Angeles, he and I and the Los Angeles Chapter of National Action Network worked closely on gang violence and police misconduct matters. Mr. Bratton knows of my concerns and the concerns of others about racial profiling in stop and frisk policing, but at the same time is aware of our desire to continue the decrease of violence and crime in our community.
I told Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and Commissioner Bill Bratton that I hope they will work with a broad cross-sector of New Yorkers to continue the pursuit of both and we discussed meeting over the next few days to discuss these matters with him and with other civil rights and community leaders."
— Rev. Al Sharpton, head of the National Action Network
• "We congratulate Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio on a solid choice of Bill Bratton for Police Commissioner. Commissioner Bratton has an international reputation as a problem solver and innovator. His problem solving style has been to be inclusive of all parties affected by a problem and that's the best way to find solutions. We look forward to working with Commissioner Bratton to improve the morale of our officers and to support the shield we wear. We are New York City Police Officers: we live here, we work here and we care about this city."
— Patrick Lynch, President of Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
• "We look forward to working with the new mayor and police commissioner to ensure that fundamental changes are made to the NYPD, including a top-to-bottom culture shift that ends racial profiling and the abuse of stop-and-frisk.
The mayor won election on the promise to close the book on the tale of two cities, and New Yorkers from all backgrounds have made clear that we will hold him to that promise. It's a challenging task, but we are optimistic we will begin to see an era where members of all communities can trust the police, and where the police respect the rights and dignity of all New Yorkers."
— NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman.
• "Bill Bratton is an excellent selection. Detectives are enthusiastic about change in the famous detective bureau of the NYPD and the union is looking forward to working with Commissioner Bratton to accomplish that. His appointment indicates that newly-elected Mayor de Blasio knows there is a nexus between public safety and the economic health of New York City."
— Michael Palladino, President of the Detectives Endowment Association
• "Given Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's commitment to dropping the appeal in Floyd, we expect incoming Commissioner Bill Bratton will embrace the full remedial order as a roadmap to meaningful stop-and-frisk reform and changing the police department's relationships with the communities it serves. Bratton previously addressed unconstitutional racial discrimination in the Los Angeles Police Department, working with a court-appointed monitor to implement change. At the same time, we hope Bratton's appointment is not a signal from de Blasio that the NYPD will be ramping up so-called 'broken windows' policing, surveillance, and numbers-driven policing. As Mr. Bratton himself has stated, constitutional policing is not inconsistent with effective policing. Mr. Bratton has implemented reform before under a court-ordered process, and we are hopeful he will work with community representatives and civil liberties groups do the same with the NYPD."
— Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the organization litigating the landmark stop-and-frisk case, Floyd v. City of New York
• "I've known Bill Bratton for more than a decade — he is one of the most knowledgeable and effective people in American law enforcement, and the right choice for New York City Police Commissioner. As a leading national architect of community policing, he understands that partnerships, problem-solving and prevention are instrumental in driving down crime. His development of CompStat was a revolutionary innovation that changed the face of policing and made us all safer. And New Yorkers can be confident that Commissioner Bratton will continue the critical work of guarding against terrorist threats to our city. People in every community in New York City will be well-served with Bill Bratton at the helm of the NYPD."
— Eric Schneiderman, New York State Attorney General
• "We applaud Mayor-elect de Blasio's strong commitments to stop-and-frisk reforms, the Community Safety Act and police accountability as public advocate, during his mayoral campaign — in which they were a major part of his platform — and as mayor-elect. As his choice for police commissioner, Bill Bratton must turn the page on Commissioner Kelly's failure to address stop-and-frisk abuses and related discriminatory policing. It's critical that Mr. Bratton rejects policies that rely on discrimination, demonstrates a commitment to true accountability, and works to ensure the department values officers' abilities to build respectful community partnerships based on respect for the dignity and rights of all New Yorkers rather than on discrimination-based stop, summons and arrest quotas. Communities throughout our city remain ready to work with their police department to achieve safety for their families and neighborhoods; we need a commissioner who understands that treating entire communities as criminals is not only unjust, but counterproductive. We look forward to partnering with the Mayor-elect and his commissioner to ensure that the NYPD's policies and practices are consistent with these values and prioritize the perspectives of New Yorkers most impacted by discriminatory and abusive policing."
— Joo-Hyun Kang, spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform
• “I applaud Bill Bratton's selection as our next Police Commissioner. He is a consummate law enforcement professional with whom we worked closely — and successfully — in the past and will, I am sure, in the future. He is a tough crime fighter who has the ability to bring law enforcement and communities together as partners in the critically important work of keeping our City and all of its neighborhoods safe. I very much look forward to once again working with Bill in helping to keep New York as the safest big city in America.”
— Richard Brown, Queens District Attorney
• “I worked with Bill Bratton in the early 1990s and he helped transform New York from a crime ridden city to a safe city. The Mayor-elect made a great choice. I am confident he will continue the great success the NYPD has enjoyed.”
— U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer
• "Commissioner Bratton is a wise choice to head the NYPD at this important moment for New York. His vast experience and commitment to working with communities to improve safety will allow the de Blasio administration to attack persistent crime challenges head-on while maintaining success where progress has been made. I look forward to working with him in Brooklyn, and helping him include the valuable knowledge of anti-violence and community groups on the ground to make our streets safer."
— Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President-Elect
• “On behalf of all New Yorkers, I would like to congratulate Bill Bratton on his appointment as the next New York City police commissioner. Voters have spoken out clearly about the need to reform police practices like Stop and Frisk while keeping crime in check. I am grateful to Mayor-Elect de Blasio for his thoughtful approach to this process which has also given us a chance to recognize the services of Philip Banks and Rafael Pineiro. I look forward to working with Mr. Bratton to ensure that we keep our streets safe while preserving the civil liberties of New Yorkers in every community.”
— Letitia “Tish” James, Brooklyn Councilwoman and Public Advocate-elect
• "William Bratton is a strong choice for New York Police Commissioner. I believe he will help build relationships between our city's diverse communities and the police force, while making all our neighborhoods safer."
— Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez, (D-N.Y.)
• “We would like to extend our congratulations to William Bratton on his appointment as Police Commissioner. We are confident that he will implement Mayor-elect De Blasio's new vision of community policing to create a city that is safe for every New Yorker, regardless of what neighborhood they live in or what their racial background is. We also would like to acknowledge the deep bench at the NYPD that will be in place to support the new commissioner, which includes outstanding leaders such as First Deputy Commissioner Rafael Piñeiro and Chief of Department Philip Banks, III. The members of 32BJ look forward to working with the NYPD team to change the discriminatory policy of stop and frisk and keep our streets safe.”
— Hector Figueroa, President of 32BJ SEIU
• "To achieve his Vision Zero goal, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is smart to appoint Bill Bratton to lead the NYPD. Traffic deaths and serious injuries are epidemic in New York City, and the police department has a significant role to play in eliminating them. More New Yorkers are killed in traffic than murdered by guns. At a recent panel discussion presented by T.A. and NYU's Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, Bill Bratton demonstrated that he understands the urgent need to use data-driven traffic enforcement across the city to target reckless and deadly drivers and save lives."
— Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives