The clock is ticking for the newly elected mayor to name a police commissioner — the first changing of the guard at the NYPD in 12 years.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he wanted to put as many “key players in place as possible, as quickly as possible.” But he stopped short of providing a timeline.
Chief of Department Philip Banks III — the highest-ranking black cop on the force — and ex-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton are considered leading candidates for the job.
“De Blasio’s got a tough road ahead of him,” said criminologist John Eterno, a retired NYPD captain. “He’s got to pick somebody who will fit with his views but still combat crime and terrorism.”
De Blasio has repeatedly said he would replace Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, due in large part to the controversial stop-and-frisk tactic. Kelly has said it’s a valuable policing tool, while de Blasio said blacks and Latinos have been unfairly targeted.
Eterno, of Molloy College on Long Island, said he received a call from a third party seeking his advice on de Blasio’s selection for top cop. “I suggested a number of things he should do, and one of them is to pick somebody who’s not currently in the NYPD,” he said. “He’s going to need somebody to come in and make some changes in terms of stop-and-frisk.”
Eterno said he suggested the new mayor pick Bratton or former NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Joseph Dunne, chief security officer at the Port Authority.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Bratton, 66, told the Daily News on Wednesday night.
Bratton served as police commissioner in New York for just over two years, resigning in March 1996. Insiders have long said he and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani competed for the limelight and credit for reductions in crime. They couldn’t co-exist.
Bratton has been the top cop in Boston and in Los Angeles, where he led the department out of federal oversight. The next commish will face oversight by an inspector general approved by the City Council.
Insiders say Banks, 50, might be a better fit because he may help strengthen ties with minority communities. He’s the former head of the NYPD’s Community Affairs Bureau.
“Chief Banks is a talented law enforcement professional with an intimate understanding of the diversity of the city,” said Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn).
Philip Banks Jr., a retired NYPD cop, declined to talk about his son potentially leading the force. “We’re all very proud of him,” the 71-year-old said.
A law enforcement source told The News that Washington Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lynn Lanier was among those contacted about Kelly’s job. D.C.’s top cop was the public face of the department during the Sept. 16 Navy Yard shooting that left 13 dead. She has been credited with managing crime through community relations. De Blasio’s team refused to comment.
With Thomas Tracy and Erin Durkin
