Poll: Is James O'Neill the right choice to lead the NYPD?

With Mayor Bill de Blasio at something of a crisis point in his first term - suffering from the lowest approval ratings of his mayoralty and with his re-election campaign approaching in the coming months - his selection of James O'Neill to succeed Bill Bratton as police commissioner might prove to be the make-or-break moment.

Bratton's reputation and consistent results in delivering low crime rates will be difficult to replace, but by selecting O'Neill - whom Bratton publicly supported as his successor roughly a week before he announced his resignation - de Blasio clearly feels that it's not the time to shake up the NYPD with an outside hire.

While O'Neill has more than 30 years of experience in the department and appears to be well regarded by his peers, it will be difficult for him to shake the perception that he is "Bratton's guy." Bratton certainly has a track record of success in keeping big cities safe, but his "Broken Windows" philosophy on policing has been roundly criticized for leading to the disproportionate arrests of black and Latino citizens. It is not entirely clear if O'Neill subscribes to the Broken Windows theory, or if he plans to bring new ideas on policing to the table. 

The other frequent criticism against O'Neill is that he is another in a long line of white NYPD commissioners with Irish heritage. While that is largely a symbolic argument, some police reform advocates have pointed to the puzzling optics of another white commissioner in a city as ethnically diverse as New York. 

The only certainty about O'Neill is that he will have to hit the ground running. Even a brief spike in crime could present a point of no return for de Blasio's detractors.

With all of these factors laid out - do you think the mayor made the right call in hiring O'Neill? Tell us in the poll below.  

  Create your own user feedback survey