A few months later, Mr. Bratton was appointed the city’s police chief, binding him to practices that he had helped shape and placing him under the supervision of the monitor, Michael G. Cherkasky, his friend and former boss at the consulting firm.
When Mr. Bratton stepped down as police chief in 2009, he went to work with Mr. Cherkasky again, back in the world of private security consulting.
A revolving door between government service and the corporate world has long been a feature of politics, and police officials often pursue second careers after hanging up their uniforms. But few have done so with Mr. Bratton’s breadth and fluidity.
Equally comfortable with boardroom jargon and precinct slang, he parlayed his national reputation for wrestling down crime in New York in the 1990s into an international brand.
Now, his return to New York City for a second tour as police commissioner may create an awkward situation for Mr. Bratton, who sits on the boards of two companies who hope to do business with the city, and is a senior adviser to a third. One of them is ShotSpotter, which uses a system of outdoor microphones to pinpoint the locations of gunshots.
Mr. Bratton is resigning from all three positions — forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay — in an effort to head off any potential conflicts of interest.
“I don’t see any issues at all going forward,” he said in an interview on Friday, his first since being named commissioner. “And if there is an issue that comes up, then I’ll just recuse myself from any part of the decision making on it.”
In all, Mr. Bratton, 66, spent a decade doling out advice to police departments from Birmingham, Ala., to Oakland, Calif., and giving speeches about the importance of collaboration. Earlier this year, he unveiled BlueLine, a social media network for law enforcement officers.
Mayors have hired his consulting company, the Bratton Group, and corporations as varied as the drugstore chain Rite Aid and Smart Cop Inc., a security software business based in Florida, have had him on their boards.
A leader who relishes straddling worlds, whether dining with the powerful or patrolling the streets, Mr. Bratton bounded up the corporate ladder just as he had through police ranks. But his private career was not always a clear success.
At times, he ran up against the limits of his influence, he said, finding that officials listened less to a consultant than to a commander. His time as chairman of the global risk management firm Kroll ended unceremoniously.
“You soon discover that consulting is not commanding,” said John Timoney, a first deputy commissioner under Mr. Bratton in New York who now advises Bahrain on policing. “You’re not in charge.”
Mr. Bratton, echoing that sentiment, said, “It’s not as, quite frankly, fun as making decisions.”
Over the years, he has become associated with several prominent companies that do business — or want to do business — with the city and its Police Department.
Motorola, which put Mr. Bratton on its board and paid him about $ 240,000 in cash and stock awards in 2012, has made at least $ 63 million from city contracts since 2010, mostly for telecommunications technology, according to public records. (That figure may be higher; the Police Department does not make all of its contracts publicly available, citing security concerns.)
Kroll has earned roughly $ 1.8 million from city contracts since 2010. A spokesman for the firm’s holding company, Altegrity, where Mr. Bratton was also a chairman, would not discuss his pay at the privately held company.
In May, Mr. Bratton joined the board of ShotSpotter. The company lobbied the city in 2009 and the Police Department tested its technology the next year, but found too many false positives.
However, the company’s fortunes appear likely to improve under Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who said on his campaign website that he “will invest” in ShotSpotter technology for high-crime areas.
Before then, Mr. Bratton will resign from the board, Ralph A. Clarke, the chief executive of the Oakland-based private company, said; he would not comment on Mr. Bratton’s pay for the position.
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