De Blasio Names Bratton as New York Police Commissioner - NYTimes.com

Mayor DeBlasio welcoming William Bratton as Police Commissioner

Bill deBlasio made a careful choice in bringing back William Bratton as police commissoner.  Bratton knows the City, and is presumably trusted by the police officers he once led.
Handling the stop and frisk issue is tricky.  Videos I have seen show that in "tough" neighborhoods many police officers use the flimsiest of excuses to stop, frisk, and search.  Tactics like arrests for public display of marijuana after ordering pockets to be emptied brought many unwarranted arrests for minor offenses.  Bratton - an advocate of community policing - was a proponent of the broken windows theory: maintain order, bust people for drinking a can of beer on the stoop, subway turnstile jumping, window washing, etc.  That was certainly an aggressive patrol practice which many credit as important in declining crime rates.
How Bratton (and deBlasio) will define and enforce boundaries that assure policemen act with "courtesy, professionalism, and respect" remains to be seen.  As Mayor deBlasio will certainly be viewed skeptically by the force on whose earnest efforts his and the City's future depend. - GWC
De Blasio Names Bratton as New York Police Commissioner - NYTimes.com: "Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio on Thursday morning named William J. Bratton to lead the New York Police Department. The move will return Mr. Bratton to the helm of the nation’s largest force at a time of historically low crime rates and a deepening rift between officers and the public."

The appointment has been highly anticipated and will most likely be among the most consequential for Mr. de Blasio, who turned discontent with the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices into a key part of his winning election run.

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