When Ray Kelly looks back, it’s with great satisfaction — and a small measure of amazement.
He ran the nation’s largest urban police force not once, but twice — and for two mayors.
He presided over a historic drop in crime that has transformed New York City.
And, in the process, he became the prototypical 21st century crime fighter.
RELATED: NYPD’S FORMER HEAD LAWYER TOUTED TIES TO OFFICIAL ‘MAFIA’: LAWSUIT
Not too shabby for a milkman’s son who would have laughed if somebody told him back when he was a beat cop that one day he would be police commissioner.
Joe Tabacca
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, seen with outgoing Mayor Bloomberg (right), refers to his high approval ratings saying his critics’ complaints about stop and frisk and the tracking of Muslims in the post-9/11 world, don’t reflect reality.
“In those days, it was like whoever was going to do the job was coming from a different universe,” Kelly told the Daily News as he prepared to say farewell to a job he’s done longer than any of his predecessors.
In a wide-ranging interview, Kelly conceded that as he rose through the ranks, he harbored doubts about whether he had the professional pedigree to run the NYPD.
“I always saw it to be more of a political position,” said Kelly, who has a master’s degree in public administration and a law degree. “It was just that it was going to happen on a totally different track than the track I was on.”
And yet, it did happen.
In 1992, then-Mayor David Dinkins tapped Raymond Walter Kelly to be the city’s top cop.
Jeff Bachner/Jeff Bachner for News
Kelly slammed Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin, saying her decision to grant federal class-action status to the stop-and-frisk lawsuit against the city and the NYPD was based on shaky statistics.
A battle-hardened former Marine who grew up on the Upper West Side when it was a far less genteel neighborhood, Kelly served in that post with distinction for two years until the new mayor, Rudy Giuliani, replaced him with Bill Bratton.
Now Kelly is being replaced by Bratton after a remarkable 12-year run as police commissioner for departing Mayor Bloomberg.
RELATED: POLICE COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY LAUDS NYPD FOR SLASHING CRIME RATE
As Kelly prepared to make his exit, he was eager to highlight some of the accomplishments that he feels have been drowned out by the drumbeat of criticism over the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk strategy and the Police Department’s tracking of Muslim New Yorkers in a post-Sept. 11 world.
Noting his sky-high approval ratings, Kelly gave his critics no quarter and insisted their complaints don’t reflect reality.
“I think advocacy groups have been particularly effective in raising issues that they’re concerned about, and they don’t necessarily represent the beliefs or the feelings of the general public,” Kelly, 72, said. “But what they do is get attention from the media. Media wants controversy, and that’s what some people think sells newspapers, or TV.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
Police Commissioner ray Kelly with President Bush and Mayor Bloomberg during Bush’s visit to the NYPD’s Command and Control Center on Feb. 6, 2002. Kelly created the department’s Counterterrorism Bureau — the first of its kind for a municipal police force.
“But it’s clear that if you look at polling numbers you get a very different feeling than if you just read media reports or watched television.”
RELATED: LUPICA: COMMISH KELLY WILL LEAVE BEHIND SAFER CITY
Kelly noted that his next stop, after the sitdown with a News reporter, was a Manhattan restaurant where he would be feted by a group of imams appreciative of his outreach efforts with Muslims.
The commish also took a not-so-subtle jab at Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin, saying her decision to grant federal class-action status to a lawsuit against the city and the NYPD — aimed at derailing stop-and-frisk — was based on shaky statistics.
Kelly said the judge was comparing the 686,000 stops recorded in 2011 with a 97,000 figure from 2002 that was “nothing close to reality.”
Nevertheless, Kelly said, after those numbers were released, he immediately announced retraining and fresh protocols regarding how supervisors monitor stop-and-frisk activity.
TEL/AP
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (right), seen with Mayor Bloomberg (center) and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, has headed the nation’s largest urban police force twice, for two mayors.
RELATED: KELLY TO RECRUITS: LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES
Despite that — and the fact that the number of stops has dropped dramatically to 533,000 in 2012 and to just 179,000 through the first nine months of this year — the uproar led to the creation of an outside inspector general to monitor police policy and to a law making it easier to sue the NYPD by claiming bias. The department also faces the possibility of a federal monitor.
Kelly said he does not believe he waited too long to react to the criticism on stop and frisk.
But Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and one of the NYPD’s most persistent critics, said that was Kelly’s major failing.
“I think the mayoral election speaks volumes,” Lieberman said, referring to the victory of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, a fierce critic of how people were stopped during Kelly’s tenure. “There’s no question that stop-and-frisk and the police practices were front and center in the election.”
RELATED: RAY KELLY AWARDED HONORARY DOCTORATE DEGREE
Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News
Donna Lieberman, executive director of New York Civil Liberties Union, believes Kelly took too long to react to criticism on stop and frisk, though Kelly disagrees.
On the other hand, Lieberman said, Kelly deserves much credit for “his dedication to getting guns off the street.”
Kelly took over the NYPD in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a time when many New Yorkers were terrified by the prospect of another terrorist attack.
In response to that threat, Kelly created the Counterterrorism Bureau — the first of its kind for a municipal police force.
Kelly noted that he was able to do so while still keeping an eye on conventional crime — and as the size of the force decreased by more than 5,000 officers.
RELATED: BLOOMBERG’S THREE TERMS IN CITY HALL SAW CRIME PLUNGE TO 1950S LEVELS
“I think as a public policy position you have to strive to reduce crime to zero,” Kelly said. “We understand it’s unrealistic, but you don’t accept crime as a given. You have to do everything you can to make the citizens as safe as they can possibly be.”
Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News
Donna Lieberman, executive director of New York Civil Liberties Union, is critical of Ray Kelly’s response to the stop and frisk controversy but lauds his ‘dedication to getting guns off the street.’
Kelly said the latest crime statistics back him up.
Through Monday, there have been 333 murders, on pace for a record low.
Kelly conceded there are still trouble spots in the city, places where, all too often, innocents get caught in the crossfire.
RELATED: HAMILL: AS CRIME DECLINES, BLOOMBERG, KELLY TAKING CREDIT FOR WHAT BRATTON BEGAN
But he said that thanks to programs like Operation Crew Cut, which are designed to short-circuit outbreaks of violence, there have been fewer heartbreaking murders like that of Zurana Horton, a mother of 12 who was killed in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in October 2011.
The initiative, Kelly said, has worked especially well at saving young lives. Murders this year among young people ages 13 to 21 are down more than 50%, he said, from 87 to 43 by last count.
“I think it’s a very significant reason murders are down to record lows,” Kelly said. “It’s really a case of targeting your resources where the problems are.”
Kelly has already met with Bratton, whom he called “an experienced professional.” He said it would be “presumptuous” of him to give the new top cop any advice.
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO.
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=19884
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
No comments:
Post a Comment