NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill To Resign

NEW YORK — NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill's three-decade career on New York City's police force will end in a month when he resigns from his post after three years.

O'Neill announced his departure at a Monday afternoon news conference alongside Mayor Bill de Blasio, who appointed him in 2016, and Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea, his incoming replacement.

"I came into this job with one mission, and that was to fight crime and to keep everybody safe," O'Neill said. "… And we did it, and we continue to do it."

O'Neill said he is leaving to take "another opportunity" in the private sector that he "couldn't pass up." He did not offer more details about his new job.

After starting as a Transit Police officer in 1983, O'Neill rose through the NYPD's ranks to helm several precincts and investigative divisions before becoming chief of department in 2014 and then commissioner.

As commissioner, Shea will carry on O'Neill's neighborhood policing strategy, to which the outgoing commissioner has attributed the drops in crime under his tenure. Noting his working-class upbringing and 28 years of police work, de Blasio called Shea "one of the best prepared incoming police commissioners this city has ever seen."

"Folks who have worked with Dermot Shea will tell you he is the real deal," de Blasio said. "He will tell you the truth. He will always tell you what he’s thinking. He will always demand more."

But critics of the NYPD said Shea's leadership will only continue O'Neill's dubious legacy of limited transparency and accountability for the police. Advocates said the department needs a reform-minded boss who can stand up to police unions and make the agency less opaque.

"Yet again, this Administration has failed to consult the community on a decision that will affect the lives of millions of New Yorkers," Tina Luongo, the attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society's Criminal Defense Practice, said in a statement. "... This will be more of the same, and our clients — New Yorkers from communities of color — will continue to suffer more of the same from a police department that prioritizes arrests and summonses above all else."

O'Neill's resignation will come at a tumultuous time for the nation's largest police department. Ten active NYPD cops have died by suicide this year, and recent allegations of police brutality in the subway led protesters to flood the streets of Brooklyn Friday night.

O'Neill's August decision to fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner has also heightened tensions between the commissioner and the city's police unions. The commissioner said that decision played no role in his resignation.

But such controversies have not stopped crime from falling to historic lows under O'Neill, who was named the city's 43rd police commissioner three years ago last month.

The city saw fewer than 300 murders in both 2017 and 2018, a milestone not previously reached since the 1950s. Major crimes are down overall so far this year despite increases in murders and shootings, police statistics show.

O'Neill has attributed those declines to neighborhood policing, which aims to make officers more familiar with local residents and problems by putting them in the same neighborhoods on the same shifts.

The de Blasio administration aims to stay the course by putting Shea at the helm. Like O'Neill, he is a veteran cop who climbed the NYPD's ladder before becoming the city's top detective last year. He previously served as the chief of crime control strategies.

Born in Sunnyside, Queens to Irish immigrant parents, Shea graduated from the police academy with his older brother and cousin on the same day in 1991. He went on to lead two Bronx precincts before becoming chief of crime control strategies and deputy commissioner for operations in 2014, a post in which he sharpened the NYPD's data-driven policing tactics.

Law enforcement runs in Shea's family — his brother Jim is the director of public safety in Jersey City, New Jersey. He said his late father and uncle are likely celebrating the family's latest achievement in the afterlife.

"I can assure you there is a hell of a celebration going on in heaven," Shea said. "… There is probably some Irish whiskey being spilt."