De Blasio plays it safe by choosing O’Neill

Even approaching his (supposedly) self-imposed resignation, Bill Bratton remains the most influential member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.

As quickly as the NYPD commissioner announced his departure from One Police Plaza, de Blasio named Bratton’s handpicked replacement, James O’Neill, the chief of department, who has over 30 years of NYPD experience.

The selection of O’Neill has transparent political implications for the mayor, who is clearly not comfortable engaging with the NYPD. Despite running for office on a platform of police reform, de Blasio has always deferred to Bratton on how to best implement departmental changes, whether on reducing stop-and-frisk, instituting neighborhood policing or, most recently, changing how police officers conduct stops. It’s clear that the mayor has always depended on Bratton’s legitimacy as commissioner to inoculate him from the police unions’ vitriolic criticism.

The problem with that line of thinking is that the political clout of the police unions – namely the Patrolmen’s and Sergeant’s Benevolent Associations – has never matched the decibel of their complaints. There’s a long history in New York City of the police unions going to war with mayors – from La Guardia to Lindsay and yes, even vaunted “law and order” executives like Rudy Giuliani. And yet the only mayoral incumbent that crumbled under the weight of law enforcement political action was David Dinkins, and even then it took an era of extraordinarily high crime rates (that were beginning to fall under Dinkins) – and some strategic fear mongering from Giuliani (sound familiar?) – to oust him.

Maybe de Blasio, a former low-level Dinkins aide, is terrified of the same fate, but he shouldn’t be. By every metric, the city is doing just fine, and de Blasio’s electoral fate does not hinge on who he picks as commissioner as long as that person ensures that those record-low crime rates remain. From that perspective, perhaps O’Neill was the right choice – keeping the status quo in place for a seamless leadership transition.

But picking O’Neill without even considering alternatives outside the department – de Blasio reportedly only interviewed O’Neill and First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker – also reflects the mayor’s weakness as an executive.

De Blasio has no shortage of accomplishments to campaign on in 2017, but his borderline paranoid obsession with “moneyed interests” out to derail his mayoralty and his defensive stance with the tabloid media gives the appearance that he has a glass jaw. If de Blasio wanted to embolden his base – black and Latino New Yorkers, among the only voters that haven’t outright abandoned him – a thorough, nationwide search for a police commissioner that would hold officers accountable for their actions might have gone a long way, police unions and well-heeled critics be damned.

Instead, de Blasio continues to walk the political tightrope with policing, leaning on neighborhood policing (still only a pilot program), and other internal departmental changes to try to placate his base, who can't be thrilled at the prospect of having Bill Bratton Redux running the NYPD for the foreseeable future (albeit, hopefully without Bratton’s propensity for placing his foot in his mouth).

Maybe O’Neill distinguishes himself and steps out of Bratton’s shadow. Re-negotiating the compromise Bratton brokered with Melissa Mark-Viverito on the Right to Know Act would be a good start in changing that perception, and certainly engender significant goodwill among New Yorkers, though at the moment there is no indication he will do so.

In the end, O’Neill represents a missed opportunity for de Blasio to enact the bold change he promised three years ago.

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