Raymond W. Kelly
Encyclopedia
Raymond Walter Kelly (born September 4, 1941) is the current Commissioner
of the New York City Police Department
(NYPD) and the first person to hold the post for two non-consecutive tenures. A lifelong New Yorker, Kelly has spent 31 years in the NYPD, serving in 25 different commands and as Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1994 and 2002–present. During his tenure with the NYPD, Kelly held most of the department's ranks
, except for the Three-Star Bureau Chief, Chief of Department, or Deputy Commissioner. He was promoted directly from Two-Star Chief to First Deputy Commissioner in 1990.
After his handling of the World Trade Center bombing
in 1993, he was mentioned for the first time as a possible candidate for FBI Director. After Kelly turned down the position, Louis Freeh
was appointed.
Kelly was also in the running to become the first Ambassador to Vietnam
, after President Bill Clinton
extended full diplomatic relations to that country in 1995.
In March of 2011, New York Senator Charles Schumer
publicly recommended Kelly to become the next Director of the FBI.
in 1959. He graduated with a B.B.A.
from Manhattan College
in 1963. He also holds a J.D.
from the St. John's University School of Law, an LL.M.
from the New York University School of Law
, and an M.P.A.
from the Harvard Kennedy School
.
Kelly has also been the recipient of honorary degrees from Marist College
, Manhattan College
, the College of St. Rose, St. John's University, the State University of New York
, New York University
, Iona College
, Pace University
, Quinnipiac University
, St. Thomas Aquinas College
and The Catholic University of America
.
in 1963. In 1965, he went to the Republic of Vietnam
with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marines
. As a First Lieutenant in Vietnam
, Kelly led troops in battle for most of his 12 months in country, including participation in Operation Harvest Moon. While in Vietnam, Kelly was interviewed near Phu Bai by a young reporter named Dan Rather
. (His youngest son, Greg
, now a presenter for Fox News, would become an embedded journalist
with the 3rd Infantry Division, and the first television journalist to televise pictures from Baghdad
during the invasion of Iraq
in 2003 almost 40 years later.)
Upon returning to the U.S., Raymond Kelly joined the reserves and retired after 30 years of service with the rank of Colonel
from the Marine Corps Reserve
s
of Manhattan
, to James F. Kelly, a milkman, and Elizabeth Kelly, a dressing-room checker at Macy's.
A fitness buff since his teens, Kelly still regularly lifts weights and does aerobic exercises. He is also a snazzy dresser, favoring custom-made shirts which he has laundered at Geneva, a shirtmaker, and silk ties by Charvet. "A tie is the only true way men can make some sort of statement," Kelly has stated, citing Barack Obama as another fan of the high-end French label. "I can tell when someone's wearing Charvet from a distance – even dark colors stand out." Claiming that good quality clothing enhances his public image as an authority figure, he orders custom hand-tailored suits from master tailor Martin Greenfield, who numbers politicians and movie stars among his clientele and whose suits run in the four figures.
Kelly is the father of Greg Kelly
, co-host of the local Fox
morning television show Good Day New York
.
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Kelly joined the New York City Police Department
as a trainee immediately after returning from Vietnam in 1960. He scored first in his class in New York City Police Academy exams and passed the sergeant's test immediately afterwards, having patrolled the Upper West Side for only seven months before being promoted. This meteoric ascent combined with relative inexperience as a beat cop has prompted some criticisms from colleagues. According to Geoffrey Gray, writing in New York Magazine, "Some retired cops say Kelly’s swift ascent makes him a boss who doesn’t understand the street. 'He’s not a cop,' says one retired chief, dismissively. 'He’s on patrol for a blink of an eye and tells guys on patrol ten years how to do their jobs.' Says another, 'He gives you all the ingredients to make shrimp scampi and says he wants sirloin steak.'
, Kelly was appointed First Deputy Commissioner on February 9, 1990, under New York City Police Commissioner
Lee Brown, a former Houston Police
Chief and future Houston Mayor.
Kelly was promoted from a Two-Star Assistant Chief to the First Deputy position over several Three-Star Bureau Chiefs, and the Four-Star Chief of Department, Robert J. Johnston Jr.
At the time Johnston was so powerful, Brown altered the traditional hierarchy by announcing that Johnston would report directly to the Police Commissioner rather than the First Deputy as had been called for under the former departmental structure. This was done to prevent Johnston from having to report to his former subordinate, Kelly.
. Kelly took over a police department that was 11.5% black, in a city with an over 25% black population. At 9 am on his first full day as Police Commissioner, Kelly was on the “black-owned” radio station WLIB
for 40 minutes talking to host Art Whaley, as well as callers, to discuss minority recruitment. He showed himself a master of outreach and even attended black church services in an effort to recruit minority policemen.
that had become a sign of decay in the city. The murder rate in New York city had declined from its 1990 mid-Dinkins administration historic high of 2,254 to 1,927, when Kelly left in 1994, and continued to plummet even more steeply under Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, as, indeed, it did all over the country. The decline continued when Kelly returned as commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg in 2002–present.
's Police Chief Bill Bratton. Bratton (whom Giuliani fired in 1996 when he appeared on the cover of Time magazine, appointing former fire commissioner Howard Safir
, as Police Commissioner, instead). Giuliani and Bratton immediately dismantled Kelly's successful Community Policing policy, which they allegedly disparaged as "glorified social work." However they wished to take credit for Kelly's successful reduction in quality of life crimes epitomized by the "squeegee men" and stepped up their arrests of the same.
system, initiated by Bill Bratton and since adopted by police departments in other cities world wide. The system, while recognized as highly effective in reducing crime, also puts pressure on local precincts to reduce the number of reports for the seven major crimes while increasing the number of lesser arrests. The two men continued and indeed stepped up Mayor Giuliani's controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which disproportionately targets black and Latino youth and is considered by some to be a form of racial profiling. In the first half of 2011 the NYC police made 362,150 such arrests, constituting a 13.5 percent increase from the same period in 2010, according to WNYC radio (which also reported that 84 percent of the people stopped were either black or Latino, and that "nine out 10 stops did not result in any arrest or ticket.") According to New York State Senator Eric Adams
, “Kelly was one of the great humanitarians in policing under David Dinkins. I don’t know what happened to him that all of a sudden his philosophical understanding of the importance of community and police liking each other has changed. Sometimes the expeditious need of bringing down crime numbers bring out the worst in us. So instead of saying let’s just go seek out the bad guy, we get to the point of, ‘Let’s go get them all.’ If Kelly can’t philosophically change, then we need to have a leadership change at the top.”
Under Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelly also revamped New York City's Police Department into a world-class counter-terrorism
operation, operating in conjunction with the CIA. Prior to September 11th, 2001
there were fewer than two dozen officers working on terrorism full time; ten years later there were over 1,000. One of Kelly's innovations was his unprecedented stationing of New York City police detectives in other cities throughout the world following terrorist attacks in those cities, with a view to determining if they are in any way connected to the security of New York. In the cases of both the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombing and the London bombings on July 7 and 21, 2005, NYPD detectives were on the scene within a day to relay pertinent information back to New York. An August 2011 article by the Associated Press reported the NYCPD's extensive use of undercover agents (colloquially referred to as “rakers” and “mosque crawlers”) to keep tabs, even build databases, on stores, restaurants, mosques. and clubs. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne denied that police trolled ethnic neighborhoods, telling the AP that officers only follow leads. He also dismissed the idea of “mosque crawlers,” saying, "Someone has a great imagination."
According to Mother Jones columnist Adam Serwer, "The FBI was reportedly so concerned about the legality of the NYPD's program that it refused to accept information that came out of it." Valerie Caproni, the FBI's general counsel, told the AP that the FBI is barred from sending agents into mosques looking for leads outside of a specific investigation and said the practice would raise alarms. "If you're sending an informant into a mosque when there is no evidence of wrongdoing, that's a very high-risk thing to do," she was quoted as saying. "You're running right up against core constitutional rights. You're talking about freedom of religion."
Under Mayor Bloomberg, Kelly's NYPD also incurred criticism for its handling of the protests surrounding the 2004 Republican National Convention
, which resulted in the City of New York having to pay out millions in settlement of lawsuits for false arrest and civil rights violations, as well as for its rough treatment of credentialed reporters covering the 2011 Occupy Wall Street
demonstrations.
On March 5, 2007, it was announced that a Rikers Island
inmate offered to pay an undercover police officer posing as a hit man to behead Kelly as well as bomb police headquarters in retaliation for the controversial police shooting of Sean Bell
.
from doing business with the NYC police pension fund.
Monitors of the Multinational Force in Haiti
from October 1994 through March 1995. This U.S.-led force was responsible for ending human rights abuses and establishing an interim police force there. For his service in Haiti
, President Bill Clinton
awarded Kelly a commendation for "exceptionally meritorious service". Kelly was also awarded the Commander's Award for Public Service
by then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Shalikashvili
.
From 1996 to 1998, Kelly was Under Secretary for Enforcement
at the United States Department of the Treasury
. At that post he supervised the Department's enforcement bureaus, including the Customs Service
, the Secret Service
and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control
.
from 1996 to 2000.
, where he managed the agency's 20,000 employees and $20 billion annual budget.
from 2000 to 2001.
(PAL) a non-profit youth development agency that helps inner-city children and teens.
Also during his service as commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg, Kelly has been a member of the Harvard Club of New York
, with membership and expenses charged covered by the privately funded New York City Police Foundation
. The gift was not reported in Kelly's financial disclosures, but indications upon public revelation in 2010 were that the disclosures would be amended.
A 2010 report on gifts "reported six shared plane flights to Florida in 2008 and five more in 2009, provided by Mayor ... Bloomberg at an undetermined cost."
In Mr. Kelly's defense, Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University, argued that a police commissioner should get “broad latitude” in a post-terrorist era. According Professor Moss, “The police commissioner of New York City occupies a special, appointed position. He’s our secretary of defense, head of the C.I.A. and, I would say, chief architect rolled into one. He may be the one person who we should treat with some respect on his privacy.”
In an editorial entitled "They Like Transparency Until They Don't", the New York Times admonished:
From the segment:
Technology built specifically for the NYPD includes radiological and nuclear detectors on boats, radiation detectors on helicopters and trucks, and detectors on cops' gun belts so sensitive that people who've had medical procedures may trigger them. And Lower Manhattan now includes thousands of surveillance cameras that can identify shapes and sizes of unidentified "suspicious" packages and can track people descriptions, like, "someone wearing a red shirt," within seconds.
New York City Police Commissioner
The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department, appointed by the Mayor of New York City. Governor Theodore Roosevelt, in one of his final acts before becoming Vice President of the United States in March 1901, signed legislation replacing the Police Board...
of the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
(NYPD) and the first person to hold the post for two non-consecutive tenures. A lifelong New Yorker, Kelly has spent 31 years in the NYPD, serving in 25 different commands and as Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1994 and 2002–present. During his tenure with the NYPD, Kelly held most of the department's ranks
Police ranks of the United States
The United States police rank model is generally paramilitary in structure.-Ranks:Although the large and varied number of federal, state, and local police and sheriff's departments have different ranks, a general model, from highest to lowest rank, would be:...
, except for the Three-Star Bureau Chief, Chief of Department, or Deputy Commissioner. He was promoted directly from Two-Star Chief to First Deputy Commissioner in 1990.
After his handling of the World Trade Center bombing
1993 World Trade Center bombing
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 lb urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower , bringing...
in 1993, he was mentioned for the first time as a possible candidate for FBI Director. After Kelly turned down the position, Louis Freeh
Louis Freeh
Louis Joseph Freeh was the 5th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving from September 1993 to June 2001....
was appointed.
Kelly was also in the running to become the first Ambassador to Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, after President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
extended full diplomatic relations to that country in 1995.
In March of 2011, New York Senator Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a...
publicly recommended Kelly to become the next Director of the FBI.
Education
Kelly graduated from Archbishop Molloy High SchoolArchbishop Molloy High School
Archbishop Molloy High School is a co-educational, college preparatory, Catholic school for grades 9-12, located on in the Briarwood section of Queens in New York City, thirty minutes east of Manhattan. Molloy currently has an endowment of about $6,000,000 . The school's current principal is Br...
in 1959. He graduated with a B.B.A.
Bachelor of Business Administration
The Bachelor of Business Administration is a bachelor's degree in Commerce and business administration. In most universities, the degree is conferred upon a student after four years of full-time study in one or more areas of business concentrations; see below...
from Manhattan College
Manhattan College
Manhattan College is a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in the Lasallian tradition in New York City, United States. Despite the college's name, it is no longer located in Manhattan but in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, roughly 10 miles north of Midtown. Manhattan College offers...
in 1963. He also holds a J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from the St. John's University School of Law, an LL.M.
Master of Laws
The Master of Laws is an advanced academic degree, pursued by those holding a professional law degree, and is commonly abbreviated LL.M. from its Latin name, Legum Magister. The University of Oxford names its taught masters of laws B.C.L...
from the New York University School of Law
New York University School of Law
The New York University School of Law is the law school of New York University. Established in 1835, the school offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law, and is located in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
, and an M.P.A.
Master of Public Administration
The Master of Public Administration is a professional post-graduate degree in Public Administration. The MPA program prepares individuals to serve as managers in the executive arm of local, state/provincial, and federal/national government, and increasingly in nongovernmental organization and...
from the Harvard Kennedy School
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
.
Kelly has also been the recipient of honorary degrees from Marist College
Marist College
Marist College is a private liberal arts college on the east bank of the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, New York. The site was established in 1905 by Marist Brothers, and the college was chartered in 1929...
, Manhattan College
Manhattan College
Manhattan College is a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in the Lasallian tradition in New York City, United States. Despite the college's name, it is no longer located in Manhattan but in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, roughly 10 miles north of Midtown. Manhattan College offers...
, the College of St. Rose, St. John's University, the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Iona College
Iona College (New York)
Iona College is located in New Rochelle, New York, 20 miles north of Manhattan in suburban Westchester County. The college occupies 35 acres on North Ave. The college also operates a Graduate Center in Pearl River, Rockland County, New York....
, Pace University
Pace University
Pace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...
, Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Hamden, Connecticut, United States at the foot of Sleeping Giant State Park...
, St. Thomas Aquinas College
St. Thomas Aquinas College
St. Thomas Aquinas College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Rockland County, New York that occupies a forty-eight acre campus. Located at 125 Route 340 in Sparkill, New York, the college is named after the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas...
and The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
.
Military
Raymond Kelly is a combat veteran of the Vietnam war. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine CorpsUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
in 1963. In 1965, he went to the Republic of Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marines
2nd Battalion 1st Marines
2nd Battalion, 1st Marines is an infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. Nicknamed "The Professionals," the battalion consists of approximately 1000 Marines and Sailors...
. As a First Lieutenant in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Kelly led troops in battle for most of his 12 months in country, including participation in Operation Harvest Moon. While in Vietnam, Kelly was interviewed near Phu Bai by a young reporter named Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
. (His youngest son, Greg
Greg Kelly
Gregory Raymond "Greg" Kelly is an American broadcast journalist. He is currently the co-host of Good Day New York; previously was the co-host of Fox and Friends and a White House correspondent for Fox News. Kelly is also currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps...
, now a presenter for Fox News, would become an embedded journalist
Embedded journalist
Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq...
with the 3rd Infantry Division, and the first television journalist to televise pictures from Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
during the invasion of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in 2003 almost 40 years later.)
Upon returning to the U.S., Raymond Kelly joined the reserves and retired after 30 years of service with the rank of Colonel
Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...
from the Marine Corps Reserve
United States Marine Corps Reserve
The Marine Forces Reserve is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command in the U.S...
s
Personal
Kelly was born and raised on the Upper West SideUpper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, to James F. Kelly, a milkman, and Elizabeth Kelly, a dressing-room checker at Macy's.
A fitness buff since his teens, Kelly still regularly lifts weights and does aerobic exercises. He is also a snazzy dresser, favoring custom-made shirts which he has laundered at Geneva, a shirtmaker, and silk ties by Charvet. "A tie is the only true way men can make some sort of statement," Kelly has stated, citing Barack Obama as another fan of the high-end French label. "I can tell when someone's wearing Charvet from a distance – even dark colors stand out." Claiming that good quality clothing enhances his public image as an authority figure, he orders custom hand-tailored suits from master tailor Martin Greenfield, who numbers politicians and movie stars among his clientele and whose suits run in the four figures.
Kelly is the father of Greg Kelly
Greg Kelly
Gregory Raymond "Greg" Kelly is an American broadcast journalist. He is currently the co-host of Good Day New York; previously was the co-host of Fox and Friends and a White House correspondent for Fox News. Kelly is also currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps...
, co-host of the local Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
morning television show Good Day New York
Good Day New York
Good Day New York is a weekday morning news and entertainment feature show which airs on WNYW, the New York City flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company...
.
Policing
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
as a trainee immediately after returning from Vietnam in 1960. He scored first in his class in New York City Police Academy exams and passed the sergeant's test immediately afterwards, having patrolled the Upper West Side for only seven months before being promoted. This meteoric ascent combined with relative inexperience as a beat cop has prompted some criticisms from colleagues. According to Geoffrey Gray, writing in New York Magazine, "Some retired cops say Kelly’s swift ascent makes him a boss who doesn’t understand the street. 'He’s not a cop,' says one retired chief, dismissively. 'He’s on patrol for a blink of an eye and tells guys on patrol ten years how to do their jobs.' Says another, 'He gives you all the ingredients to make shrimp scampi and says he wants sirloin steak.'
First Deputy Commissioner Under Mayor Dinkins
During the mayoralty of David DinkinsDavid Dinkins
David Norman Dinkins is a former politician from New York City. He was the Mayor of New York City from 1990 through 1993; he was the first and is, to date, the only African American to hold that office.-Early life:...
, Kelly was appointed First Deputy Commissioner on February 9, 1990, under New York City Police Commissioner
New York City Police Commissioner
The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department, appointed by the Mayor of New York City. Governor Theodore Roosevelt, in one of his final acts before becoming Vice President of the United States in March 1901, signed legislation replacing the Police Board...
Lee Brown, a former Houston Police
Houston Police Department
The Houston Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. Its headquarters are in 1200 Travis in Downtown Houston....
Chief and future Houston Mayor.
Kelly was promoted from a Two-Star Assistant Chief to the First Deputy position over several Three-Star Bureau Chiefs, and the Four-Star Chief of Department, Robert J. Johnston Jr.
At the time Johnston was so powerful, Brown altered the traditional hierarchy by announcing that Johnston would report directly to the Police Commissioner rather than the First Deputy as had been called for under the former departmental structure. This was done to prevent Johnston from having to report to his former subordinate, Kelly.
37th NYC Police Commissioner
On October 16, 1992, Mayor Dinkins, an African-American, appointed Raymond Kelly 37th Police Commissioner of the City of New YorkNew York City Police Commissioner
The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department, appointed by the Mayor of New York City. Governor Theodore Roosevelt, in one of his final acts before becoming Vice President of the United States in March 1901, signed legislation replacing the Police Board...
. Kelly took over a police department that was 11.5% black, in a city with an over 25% black population. At 9 am on his first full day as Police Commissioner, Kelly was on the “black-owned” radio station WLIB
WLIB
WLIB is an urban contemporary gospel AM radio station located in New York City. WLIB is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation along with sister station WBLS...
for 40 minutes talking to host Art Whaley, as well as callers, to discuss minority recruitment. He showed himself a master of outreach and even attended black church services in an effort to recruit minority policemen.
Reducing Crime Through Community Policing and Enforcement of Quality of Life Offenses Under Mayor Dinkins
The national decline in both violent crime and property crime began in 1993, during the early months of Raymond Kelly's commissionership under Dinkins. At the time a firm believer in community policing, Kelley helped spur the decline in New York by instituting the Safe Streets, Safe City program, which put thousands more cops on the streets, where they would be visible to and able to get to know and interact with local communities. As the 37th Commissioner, he also pursued quality of life issues, such as the “squeegee men”Squeegee man
A squeegee man or squeegee woman, squeegee kid , squeegee punk , squeegee merchant or squeegee bandit is a person who, washcloth and squeegee in hand, wipes windshields of cars stopped in traffic and then solicits money from drivers.-Canada:In Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg they are...
that had become a sign of decay in the city. The murder rate in New York city had declined from its 1990 mid-Dinkins administration historic high of 2,254 to 1,927, when Kelly left in 1994, and continued to plummet even more steeply under Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, as, indeed, it did all over the country. The decline continued when Kelly returned as commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg in 2002–present.
1993 World Trade Center Terrorist attack
The first World Trade Center terrorist attack occurred on February 26, 1993 while Kelly was Police Commissioner under Mayor Dinkins (1992 to 1994), and Kelly led his department through the investigation of the bombing.9mm handguns
In August 1993, Kelly introduced the 9 mm handgun as an option for officers. Himself a former street cop, Kelly was concerned about the 9 mm handgun's propensity for jamming. Indeed, at a media event introducing the new 9 mm in January 1993, one of the guns jammed just moments after a deputy inspector explained that jamming was the 9 mm major drawback.Transition
After Mayor Dinkins was defeated in his run for a second term, the victorious Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, replaced Kelly with BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's Police Chief Bill Bratton. Bratton (whom Giuliani fired in 1996 when he appeared on the cover of Time magazine, appointing former fire commissioner Howard Safir
Howard Safir
Howard Safir was New York City Fire Commissioner from 1994 to 1996 and New York City Police Commissioner from 1996 to 2000.Safir was appointed New York City's 29th Fire Commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Rudolph W...
, as Police Commissioner, instead). Giuliani and Bratton immediately dismantled Kelly's successful Community Policing policy, which they allegedly disparaged as "glorified social work." However they wished to take credit for Kelly's successful reduction in quality of life crimes epitomized by the "squeegee men" and stepped up their arrests of the same.
As 41st NYC Police Commissioner Under Bloomberg (2002–present)
As Commissioner of the NYPD under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Raymond Kelly once again displayed his mastery of outreach, appearing at events such as the Brooklyn's annual West Indian Day Parade, where he was photographed playing the drums and speaking to community leaders. Bloomberg and Kelly, however, continued to place heavy reliance on the CompStatCompStat
CompStat—or COMPSTAT— is the name given to the New York City Police Department's accountability process and has since been replicated in many other departments...
system, initiated by Bill Bratton and since adopted by police departments in other cities world wide. The system, while recognized as highly effective in reducing crime, also puts pressure on local precincts to reduce the number of reports for the seven major crimes while increasing the number of lesser arrests. The two men continued and indeed stepped up Mayor Giuliani's controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which disproportionately targets black and Latino youth and is considered by some to be a form of racial profiling. In the first half of 2011 the NYC police made 362,150 such arrests, constituting a 13.5 percent increase from the same period in 2010, according to WNYC radio (which also reported that 84 percent of the people stopped were either black or Latino, and that "nine out 10 stops did not result in any arrest or ticket.") According to New York State Senator Eric Adams
Eric Adams (politician)
Eric L. Adams is a Democratic State Senator in the New York Senate. He represents the 20th Senate District, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Flatbush, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Prospect Heights....
, “Kelly was one of the great humanitarians in policing under David Dinkins. I don’t know what happened to him that all of a sudden his philosophical understanding of the importance of community and police liking each other has changed. Sometimes the expeditious need of bringing down crime numbers bring out the worst in us. So instead of saying let’s just go seek out the bad guy, we get to the point of, ‘Let’s go get them all.’ If Kelly can’t philosophically change, then we need to have a leadership change at the top.”
Under Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelly also revamped New York City's Police Department into a world-class counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
operation, operating in conjunction with the CIA. Prior to September 11th, 2001
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
there were fewer than two dozen officers working on terrorism full time; ten years later there were over 1,000. One of Kelly's innovations was his unprecedented stationing of New York City police detectives in other cities throughout the world following terrorist attacks in those cities, with a view to determining if they are in any way connected to the security of New York. In the cases of both the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombing and the London bombings on July 7 and 21, 2005, NYPD detectives were on the scene within a day to relay pertinent information back to New York. An August 2011 article by the Associated Press reported the NYCPD's extensive use of undercover agents (colloquially referred to as “rakers” and “mosque crawlers”) to keep tabs, even build databases, on stores, restaurants, mosques. and clubs. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne denied that police trolled ethnic neighborhoods, telling the AP that officers only follow leads. He also dismissed the idea of “mosque crawlers,” saying, "Someone has a great imagination."
According to Mother Jones columnist Adam Serwer, "The FBI was reportedly so concerned about the legality of the NYPD's program that it refused to accept information that came out of it." Valerie Caproni, the FBI's general counsel, told the AP that the FBI is barred from sending agents into mosques looking for leads outside of a specific investigation and said the practice would raise alarms. "If you're sending an informant into a mosque when there is no evidence of wrongdoing, that's a very high-risk thing to do," she was quoted as saying. "You're running right up against core constitutional rights. You're talking about freedom of religion."
Under Mayor Bloomberg, Kelly's NYPD also incurred criticism for its handling of the protests surrounding the 2004 Republican National Convention
2004 Republican National Convention protest activity
2004 Republican National Convention protest activity includes the broad range of marches, rallies, performances, demonstrations, exhibits, and acts of civil disobedience in New York City to protest the 2004 Republican National Convention and the nomination of President George W. Bush for the 2004 U.S...
, which resulted in the City of New York having to pay out millions in settlement of lawsuits for false arrest and civil rights violations, as well as for its rough treatment of credentialed reporters covering the 2011 Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
demonstrations.
On March 5, 2007, it was announced that a Rikers Island
Rikers Island
Rikers Island is New York City's main jail complex, as well as the name of the island on which it sits, in the East River between Queens and the mainland Bronx, adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The island itself is part of the borough of the Bronx, though it is included as part of...
inmate offered to pay an undercover police officer posing as a hit man to behead Kelly as well as bomb police headquarters in retaliation for the controversial police shooting of Sean Bell
Sean Bell shooting incident
The Sean Bell shooting incident took place in the New York City borough of Queens, New York, United States on November 25, 2006, when three men were shot a total of fifty times by a team of both plainclothes and undercover NYPD officers, killing one of the men, Sean Bell, on the morning before his...
.
New York City Police Pension Fund
In April 2009, Kelly abstained in a vote to remove Quadrangle GroupQuadrangle Group
Quadrangle Group is a private investment firm focused on private equity. The firm invests in middle-market companies within the media, communications and information-based sectors....
from doing business with the NYC police pension fund.
Director International Police Monitors
Kelly served as Director of the International PoliceInternational Police
The International Police is the title used for an organization of police officers representing various countries throughout the world, brought together to assist in the training, organization, stabilization of a destabilized region, or creation of indigenous police forces primarily in war-torn...
Monitors of the Multinational Force in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
from October 1994 through March 1995. This U.S.-led force was responsible for ending human rights abuses and establishing an interim police force there. For his service in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
awarded Kelly a commendation for "exceptionally meritorious service". Kelly was also awarded the Commander's Award for Public Service
Commander's Award for Public Service
The Commander's Award for Public Service is the fourth highest honor the United States Department of the Army can bestow upon a civilian, ranking directly below the Outstanding Civilian Service Award.-Eligibility:...
by then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
Gen. Shalikashvili
John M. Shalikashvili
John Malchase David Shalikashvili was a United States Army General who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, to Georgian refugee parents....
.
Under Secretary for Enforcement
Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
The Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence is a position within the United States Department of the Treasury responsible for directing the Treasury's efforts to cut the lines of financial support for terrorists, fight financial crime, enforce economic sanctions against rogue...
at the United States Department of the Treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
. At that post he supervised the Department's enforcement bureaus, including the Customs Service
United States Customs Service
Until March 2003, the United States Customs Service was an agency of the U.S. federal government that collected import tariffs and performed other selected border security duties.Before it was rolled into form part of the U.S...
, the Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center serves as an interagency law enforcement training organization for 90 United States government federal law enforcement agencies.-Location:...
, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat money laundering, terrorist financiers, and other financial crimes.As reflected in its name, the Financial...
, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control
Office of Foreign Assets Control
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S...
.
Interpol, Executive Committee
Kelly served on the executive committee and was elected Vice President for the Americas of InterpolInterpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
from 1996 to 2000.
Commissioner, U.S. Customs Service
From 1998 to 2001, Kelly served as the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs ServiceUnited States Customs Service
Until March 2003, the United States Customs Service was an agency of the U.S. federal government that collected import tariffs and performed other selected border security duties.Before it was rolled into form part of the U.S...
, where he managed the agency's 20,000 employees and $20 billion annual budget.
Private sector
Kelly was Senior Managing Director for Corporate Security at Bear StearnsBear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...
from 2000 to 2001.
Affiliations
Since becoming Police Commissioner, Kelly has served as the Honorary President of the Police Athletic League of New York CityPolice Athletic League of New York City
The Police Athletic League, Inc. is an independent, non-profit youth development agency in New York City. PAL is funded by a combination of private donations and public funding sources and is a designated charity of the New York Police Department. Robert M. Morgenthau, retired District Attorney...
(PAL) a non-profit youth development agency that helps inner-city children and teens.
Also during his service as commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg, Kelly has been a member of the Harvard Club of New York
Harvard Club of New York
The Harvard Club of New York is a private club in Midtown Manhattan, New York, New York, USA. Anyone who has attended Harvard University may apply to become a member. Incorporated in 1887, it is housed in adjoining lots at 27 West 44th Street and 35 West 44th Street...
, with membership and expenses charged covered by the privately funded New York City Police Foundation
New York City Police Foundation
The New York City Police Foundation was established in 1971 by business and civic leaders as an independent, non-profit organization to strengthen the services of the New York City Police Department and to improve public safety in New York City....
. The gift was not reported in Kelly's financial disclosures, but indications upon public revelation in 2010 were that the disclosures would be amended.
A 2010 report on gifts "reported six shared plane flights to Florida in 2008 and five more in 2009, provided by Mayor ... Bloomberg at an undetermined cost."
Clashes With Civil Liberties Group Over Transparency
On October 16, 2011, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan seeking to force the New York Police Department to release the daily schedules of Commissioner Kelly, whom it characterized as “the most important appointed official" in city government. According to the suit the details of whom Kelly meets with remain largely shrouded in secrecy, in marked contrast to those of other high-placed officials, including the president of the United States, who are required to publicly disclose portions of their schedules. New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo last month began posting a detailed version of his daily schedules online. “There is no good reason for Commissioner Kelly to withhold this information from the public,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the civil liberties group, said in a statement. “If it’s safe for the leader of the country to disclose his schedule, then it’s safe for the N.Y.P.D. commissioner to do the same.”In Mr. Kelly's defense, Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University, argued that a police commissioner should get “broad latitude” in a post-terrorist era. According Professor Moss, “The police commissioner of New York City occupies a special, appointed position. He’s our secretary of defense, head of the C.I.A. and, I would say, chief architect rolled into one. He may be the one person who we should treat with some respect on his privacy.”
In an editorial entitled "They Like Transparency Until They Don't", the New York Times admonished:
In recent years, the New York Civil Liberties Union had to sue to get stop-and-frisk data from the police, details on the race of people shot by officers and shooting reports since 1997. Most recently, the group has filed a suit on behalf of an online columnist asking for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s calendar. The department has argued that the commissioner’s whereabouts are secret for security reasons. Civil liberties lawyers note that the president’s schedule appears daily on the White House Web site, so why not Mr. Kelly’s?
Similarly, The Times was forced to go to court to get fuller access to police data. A judge ruled early last month that the New York Police Department had improperly withheld information about pistol owners and the locations of hate crimes.
Such effort and expense to get public information is simply wrong. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has vowed to promote more open government, should tell his administrators to comply with the Freedom of Information Law quickly and thoroughly.
Interview With 60 Minutes About Anti-Terrorism Measures Now In Place In New York City
On September 25, 2011, Mr. Kelly was interviewed on the the television program 60 minutes by Scott Pelley about anti-terrorism measures taken in New York City's financial district in the 10 years following the 9/11 attacks. One of these has been the development of a $3-billion NYPD Joint Operations Center that includes representatives from the military, FBI, FEMA, and state and local first responders. During the interview, Mr. Kelly averred that the New York City police department now even possesses missiles that could take down a plane, if necessary.- Pelley: "Are you satisfied that you've dealt with threats from aircraft, even light planes, model planes, that kind of thing?"
- Kelly's:"It's something that's on our radar screen. In an extreme situation, we have some means to take down a plane..."
- Pelley: "Do you mean to say the NYPD has the means to take down an aircraft?"
- Kelly: "Yes. I'd prefer not to get into the details, but obviously this would be in a very extreme situation..."
- Pelley: "You have the means and the training?"
- Kelly: "Yes."
From the segment:
It is nearly impossible now to walk a block in lower Manhattan without being on television. There are 2,000 cameras, and soon there will be 3,000 -- all of which feed into this control center housed in a secret location.,
Technology built specifically for the NYPD includes radiological and nuclear detectors on boats, radiation detectors on helicopters and trucks, and detectors on cops' gun belts so sensitive that people who've had medical procedures may trigger them. And Lower Manhattan now includes thousands of surveillance cameras that can identify shapes and sizes of unidentified "suspicious" packages and can track people descriptions, like, "someone wearing a red shirt," within seconds.
Awards Conferred on Raymond Kelly
- Upon graduation from the New York City Police Academy, Kelly won the "Bloomingdale Trophy" for the highest general average in shooting and in academic and physical prowess.
- He has received 15 citations for meritorious service in the New York City Police DepartmentNew York City Police DepartmentThe New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
.
- In 2003, the National Father's Day Committee named Kelly, Father of the Year.
- On March 16, 2006, Kelly was named Irish American of the Year by Irish American Magazine.
- On June 19, 2006, Kelly received The Hundred Year Association of New YorkThe Hundred Year Association of New YorkThe Hundred Year Association of New York, founded in 1927, is a non-profit organization in New York City aimed at recognizing and rewarding dedication and service to the City of New York by businesses and organizations that have been in operation in the city for a century or more and by individuals...
's Gold Medal "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York.
- On September 9, 2006, Kelly was awarded the Légion d'honneurLégion d'honneurThe Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
during a ceremony at the FrenchFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
consulate in ManhattanManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, which was presided over by Nicolas SarkozyNicolas SarkozyNicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, the current President of FrancePresident of the French RepublicThe President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
- On March 17, 2010, Kelly was the Grand Marshal of the 249th New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade.
See also
- New York City Police DepartmentNew York City Police DepartmentThe New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
- NYPD Cricket LeagueNYPD Cricket LeagueNYPD Cricket League or NYPD Cricket or Cricket NYPD is a private Twenty20 cricket league formed by the New York City Police Department for teenagers from the Caribbean and South Asian communities in New York City. It is a recreational league founded to develop better relations between New York...