Photo Courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Dermot Shea is the 44th police commissioner of NYC.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Dermot Shea on Monday was sworn in as the 44th police commissioner of New York City.
Shea, 50, succeeds Jim O’Neill, who announced last month that he would be stepping down for a security opportunity in the private sector.
A native of Sunnyside, Shea began his service as a police officer in 1991 and rose through the ranks to become chief of Crime Control Strategies and deputy commissioner for Operations under O’Neill’s predecessor, the legendary Bill Bratton, where Shea oversaw and honed the NYPD’s trailblazing CompStat system.
“I had a tremendous advantage of having watched Dermot Shea in action for six years,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday at 1 Police Plaza. “And if you watch him, if you’ve ever seen him at a CompStat meeting, if you’ve ever seen him in a strategy session, you see an extraordinary, active mind. You see a man who believes we can go much farther, not just a little bit—we can go much farther. Someone who has such inherent faith in this department and the men and women who make it great, but also has a belief in our people and a love for the people of this city. When he grills a colleague, it’s not out of anger, it’s out of hope that we can get even better. When he puts an idea out that no one’s thought about before or been willing to say out loud, it’s because he’s not afraid to dream. It’s a rarity that you get to watch someone for six years through thick and thin deal with every kind of scenario. But what I saw was a man who was always ready to innovate, always ready to hope, and I saw the inspirational impact that he had on others.”
Last month, Shea vowed that as top cop he would apply precision policing and Neighborhood Policing to target gang-related violence, take guns off the streets, and continue the City’s historic reduction in crime.
In remarks delivered Monday, Shea reminisced on his first foot post as a rookie in the 46th Precinct in the Bronx, and ruminated on what it means to be a police officer protecting the city that seems to be the center of the universe.
“Policing is about more than public safety, it’s about service. It’s about, as the mayor said, providing hope to those sometimes that have no hope; it’s about protecting those who cannot protect themselves. It’s about changing lives,” Shea said. “So this is my message to police officers: Never forget for one second, not one second, the impact that you have on others’ lives. It’s not always easy to measure but I guarantee to you it is happening. From a police officer comforting a crime victim in their darkest hour, to standing watch as people walk home, preventing them from ever becoming victims and the trauma that comes with it, to working with kids and being a role model, you do all of this and so much more and sometimes in an eight-hour shift. You literally change people’s lives.”
