The Los Angeles Times is reporting that William Bratton, former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department and current commissioner of the New York Police Department, will be retiring next month to enter the private sector.
Bratton, who led the department in the 1990s before returning in 2014, noted that he was leaving at a fraught point for police-community relations but said he felt confident in the department's future.
"It is a challenging time for police in America and New York, even though all indicators are pointing in the right direction," he said.
...
"As we go forward and face the crises of race in America, crime in America, the threat of terrorism" and the divisiveness of the presidential election, he said, "there is no department that is better prepared."
ThinkProgress, however, is reporting that Bratton is resigning due to pressure from activists:
Bratton had already planned to retire by the end of next year. But he had previously insisted he would not step down until the department was reorganized to his satisfaction.
His abrupt resignation Tuesday gives a win to Black Lives Matter protesters who had amassed in a park across from City Hall and defied police to evict them. The #ShutDownCityHallNYC protest makes three demands, with Bratton’s scalp the first. The other two — a full defunding of the NYPD and reparations payments from the city to the families of people of color brutalizes by police — are tougher sells.
Bratton began his career as a patrolman in Boston in the 1970s. He would eventually lead that city’s police force, then move on to L.A. and New York, twice. His first stint in New York occurred under the Rudolph Giuliani administration. That’s when Bratton brought the theory of “broken windows” policing to the Big Apple, cracking down on “quality of life crimes,” such as public urination and evading transit fares. His second stint as police chief has been under current Mayor Bill de Blasio. Crime fell in the city under Bratton’s two tenures, but not without criticism. “Quality of life” crimes were seen as an excuse to act heavy-handedly, and “stop and frisk” policing of pedestrians has been condemned as racist and ineffective.
Los Angeles also saw a drop in crime under Bratton’s tenure, while also operating under a federal consent decree dating from 2001 that ended as Bratton left office.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Bratton’s departure at a City Hall press conference. James O’Neill, currently chief of the department, will be the new commissioner.