Bratton Must Stop the Feud Between NYPD, de Blasio

The war of words between the mayor and the police unions has led to a major slowdown of police action in the streets, with disastrous consequences for New York City residents, writes Daniel DiSalvo, assistant professor of political science at the City College of New York.

Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton have a near-mutiny on their hands. The war of words between the mayor and the police unions has led to a major slowdown of police action in the streets, with bad consequences for New Yorkers.

For the second week since the killings of two officers in Brooklyn, cops are on the beat but aren't doing much policing. Officers wrote 90% fewer summonses and traffic tickets than in the same period a year ago. Burglary arrests have dropped 40%. Arrests for all crimes have dropped by 56%. And there have been more murders, robberies and rapes than over the equivalent week last year.

The public is being held hostage to a fit of police officer pique.

We know the story. Conflict between de Blasio and the police unions began during the 2013 mayoral campaign, when de Blasio attacked stop-and-frisk.

The mayor then appeared to side with anti-cop protesters by chalking up the grand jury's failure to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Eric Garner's death on Staten Island as resulting from “centuries of racism.”

The mayor also spoke about the “dangers” his biracial son, Dante, may face in encounters with police. The message cops heard: You're racist thugs.

The president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch, reacted with scorn for the mayor. The union put up a document on its website for officers to sign requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals if they were killed in the line of duty.

Lynch then made the over-the-top claim that the mayor had “blood on the hands” after the two officers were killed in Brooklyn.

Rank-and-file officers disrespectfully turned their backs on the mayor when he spoke at the funerals for the slain officers.

Lurking in the background are tense contract negotiations between the city and the police unions, which are now headed to arbitration. The unions argue that their future raises were sacrificed for teacher back pay. They are now seeking to break the city's bargaining pattern with an extra 1% raise going forward.

It's not clear whether the slowdown is a “job action” sanctioned by the union.

De Blasio and Bratton met with union leaders and called for a rhetorical ceasefire. But union leaders have repeatedly told their members to put their own safety ahead of everything else — including the public's safety. That means arrests are likely to be made only in the most pressing cases.

While de Blasio's rhetoric has shifted in favor of the police, he remains a lightning rod. Therefore, Bratton needs to more forcefully defend his department than he has to date. For instance, police officers fired their weapons 40 times in 2013 — the lowest number since the department began collecting data. The NYPD is also very racially and ethnically diverse, reflecting the city it serves. Bratton needs to repeat such points in every forum.

Otherwise, de Blasio and Bratton risk losing the cooperation of the rank-and-file police, without whom they can't effectively govern. And the police unions risk looking like they don't care a whit about public safety or the chain of command.

One of the dangers of letting police officers unionize is that they are then organized for just the sorts of job actions that hold the public hostage.

The mayor made some unwise remarks, and the unions irresponsibly stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Bratton must now use all his leadership gifts to bring the city out of this quagmire.

This piece originally appeared in New York Daily News

This piece originally appeared in New York Daily News