New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is expected to choose a successor to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly within a week and William Bratton, who held the post in the mid-1990s, appears to be the leading candidate, reports the New York Times. It is arguably de Blasio’s most important appointment, especially for de Blasio, whose forceful criticism of police tactics became a centerpiece of his mayoral campaign this year.
The Times says he must oversee a department “that has chafed at his faultfinding but that he will want, and perhaps need, at his side.” Bratton would bring a reputation for credibility and success, but also a name for employing aggressive police tactics, in New York and in Los Angeles, that might be at odds with criticisms de Blasio has voiced. Besides Bratton, de Blasio has met with two high-ranking Police Department officials, First Deputy Commissioner Rafael Pineiro and Chief of Department Philip Banks III.