The Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic (56 page)

Timoney kept his rank but was gone by that evening. (Timoney came back one more time. We snuck him into the building for the final picture of our command staff. We took two photos, one regular and one with Timoney in disguise, wearing Groucho Marx glasses.) Four days later, Maple and LaPorte resigned.

One of the elements of the job I had enjoyed most was presiding over promotion ceremonies. A few days later I presided over my last one. Timoney and I received a standing ovation. He and I hugged. Timoney hugged Anemone and then kissed Maple on the cheek and hugged him, too. I addressed the troops.

“For the last twenty-seven months, I have been privileged and honored to have been embraced by the New York City Police Department. It is a very, very special place. [I want] to say thank you. To first say thank you to the leadership that you see up on this stage, each of whom has been selected by me to lead you, to work with you, occasionally to discipline you.

“There are several things that I always seek out in leaders. I seek out,
first, a love of tradition. I seek out a love of city, I seek out a love of department, and I seek out those who love cops. Because if you don't, you cannot lead them, you cannot inspire them; you cannot, when necessary, discipline them. Each and every one of the people on this stage has a very different personality. Every one of them. But they work together as a team because we share so many things, and the number one thing that we share is a love of cops.

“There has been a great deal of media attention as to who gets credit for the change in New York City. The people who should get the credit are the people in the trenches, who are doing the work, whose story I get to tell. You're the ones who deserve the credit because you're the ones making this city a safer place. I thank you for the last two years, allowing me to tell your story about the successes that you have achieved.

“As I now, after twenty-six years, get ready to leave a profession I love and go into a new one, and to leave this organization that I dreamed about forty years ago and now for twenty-seven months have been embraced by, I also want to say a special thank-you to a man without whom a lot of what has occurred over the past two-and-a-half years could not have occurred. An individual who, for twenty-nine years of his life, was a part of this organization, who, like myself, will be leaving. But the leaving will be harder for him, because he has spent so much time here.

“He will leave a great legacy, a legacy that cannot be challenged or besmirched or belittled by anybody. Among all the accolades that he has received—sixty-five decorations, combat crosses—the thing that means the most to him is to think of him as a Bronx cop. A Bronx cop.” The auditorium rang with applause. “Despite all the titles and awards and honors, one of the reasons I selected John Timoney to work with me was that despite all that he had become, he remembered from whence he had come. He remembered what it was like to be in those streets, in those buildings, to be out there where danger lurked behind every corner. And in the decisions he would make, I could trust that first and foremost, he would try to put himself in your place.

“Among the many blessings that have been bestowed upon me has been to have the friendship, the loyalty, and the support of this great man. The department will truly be diminished by his moving on, but the city will not, this department will not, because the legacy that he has left in place will remain for the many Bronx cops who come behind him.

“John, it has been a pleasure and a privilege. You're the best I've ever worked with.” I choked up. “I thank you.”

Timoney addressed the crowd. As always, he knew what was on the
cops’ minds. “I know the kids are tired and hungry, so I'll just take one second.” He thanked me. He told this group of cops on the way up that we had put together “the single greatest crime-fighting team to lead this great department. All the credit goes to the men and women of the NYPD, who I love, thank, and am going to miss.”

The Emerald Society Band piped us out.

I addressed my last Compstat and told the gathered commanders and chiefs and personnel, “You've exhibited a heroism of your own…. You don't shirk responsibility. You rush toward it, you grapple with it, you wrestle with it, and you get it done. It is a singular experience to sit in that chair, to work with people such as yourself. I hope that whoever ends up stepping into my place shares the love that I have for this organization and comes to love and respect and admire you as much as I have. It has been one hell of a ride …” I choked up and had to stop for a moment. The room was very quiet. “I'm going to miss all of you.”

For my last roll call, I addressed the evening shift at the Midtown North Precinct, my home precinct, at the station house in the middle of Central Park. I told them I would miss them, but since I intended to live in the city, I would still be there to watch them as they continued to succeed in making our city a safer place.

Mayor Giuliani took charge of the seating chart at Howard Safir's inauguration.

A poll taken by the nonprofit Empire Foundation days after I resigned found my approval rating among New Yorkers at 71 percent. The NYPD had a 73 percent positive rating, up from only 37 percent four years earlier. A Quinnipiac College poll showed that 60 percent of New York voters gave me credit for the drop in crime, while 18 percent credited Giuliani. I was pleased with our accomplishments. I would like to have done more.

I joined the private sector as president of a newly formed subsidiary of my friend Bob Johnson's First Security Services called First Security Consulting. In addition, I was made vice-chairman of his parent com-pany and served on the board of directors. Johnson's accurate business sense was that a consultancy could be very profitable, offering the crime-reduction techniques and systems that we had developed at the NYPD to other cities, countries, and companies.

The speeches I used to give to motivate the troops at precincts around the city, I now gave for a fee at business meetings and conferences around the country. I continued to do pro bono speaking and guest lecturing
at the FBI National Academy and for other cities and towns. And if I didn't have the adrenaline rush of commanding 38,000 cops and 6,000 civilians and running an organization with a budget of $2.3 billion, I had the satisfaction of bringing my crime-reducing methods to cities and companies around the country and around the world. And for the first time in my life, I had financial security. We had developed a method to reduce crime and disorder that would work in any city in America—indeed, in any city in the world.

Then some people wondered aloud what New York would be like if I became mayor. The story hit the papers, and for a while the idea was widely discussed. The thought intrigued me. Coming into the private sector, I found new challenges and new goals, but I had been a public-sector person all my adult life. Despite my growing financial rewards, I missed the constant stimulation. The crises in public life are different from those in the corporate world, and the successes give a different gratification.

I missed my team. Miller was on television. LaPorte had moved back to Boston and been named executive director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, the man in charge of preparing for every disaster that could conceivably hit Massachusetts. (His dealings with City Hall had prepared him well.) Timoney was working part-time with Mike Julian running a promotional school for police officers and had been appointed to the Crime Commission in his beloved Ireland. Maple had retired to his boat in Montauk, New York, where he spent that spring and summer pretending to be Ernest Hemingway, before emerging as a consultant himself, partnering up with John Linder. After our success at the NYPD, I felt we could do anything we put our collective mind to. My gang wanted me to go for it; they wanted to return to Camelot.

It was a heady month. I had no difficulty envisioning my team continuing and expanding the revitalization of the city. I had the good will of the people, and I had the best interests of New Yorkers at heart. I dreamed what it might be like to Compstat New York City's government.

But it's one thing to be a good mayor. It's another to get to be a good mayor. Cheryl thought the race could not be won. I had changed my registration from Independent to Democrat during the 1996 presidential race, and before I got in the ring with Giuliani I would have to win the Democratic primary. I was a centrist candidate, the kind who might win an election among the general public, but who would have more diffi-culty fending off liberals in a primary that was traditionally dominated by liberal voters.

If I got past the primary, I would face Giuliani in the general election. It would be a bloodbath. I had gotten a taste of his tactics at the close of my commissionership, and I suspected he would feel even less restrained in a political campaign. I was prepared to deal with that element. I had no financial backing, however, and I was not prepared to spend a large portion of my time raising funds, although I was getting indications that if I decided to get into the race, a substantial amount of money might become available. Giuliani, on the other hand, already had a war chest in the millions of dollars. Nevertheless, I felt Giuliani was beatable. My approval rating was ten points higher than the mayor's, and the public, as evidenced by his poll numbers, was still not warming up to him personally. If someone else could produce the same results—and I was someone who
had
produced the results—they could then ask, Is that the kind of man you want for mayor?

Still, there was the fact that I was not a politician. I knew people in various fields, including finance, law, and the media, who were knowledgeable about the city, and with their help I was confident I could canvass the political field and bring people together in much the same way as I found the talent in the NYPD. But that would take time, and I was being asked to dive in
immediately.
I could learn politics, but out of respect for the office of Mayor of the City of New York, I didn't think I could learn it quickly enough.

Ultimately, I decided not to get into the race.

The system my team and I installed continues to bring success. New York City is a much safer place now and will remain so.

In terms of importance and potential and commitment, police in America are probably the most misunderstood entity in public life today. Old images exist, and, in truth, old-guard departments exist as well. But, as we approach the millennium, there is a new breed of police leader and a new breed of police officer. We need more of them.

I was privileged during my last half-dozen years in policing to work on the national and international stage, and I feel there is still more the police can do. The turnaround of the NYPD was the catalyst for the turnaround of New York City itself and offers a potential blueprint for the turnaround of the crime situation in the entire country. We clearly showed that when properly led, properly managed, and in effective partnership with the neighborhoods and the political leaders, police can effect great
change. We have clearly shown that police can take back streets that were given up as lost for decades. The continuing challenge for American police leaders is to take them back in a lawful and respectful manner so that the behavior of the police reflects the civil behavior society expects of all of its citizens.

Even as the police continue to accept responsibility for leading the way in finding new strategies to reduce crime and fear, two of America's most intractable social issues are race and police behavior. Just as we attacked the crime and drug problems, I believe the police can take a leadership role in effectively resolving these issues that have traditionally been confrontational flash points and have contributed so much to the negative perception of police. How ironic if the police, perceived in many neighborhoods to be part of the problem, turned out to be in the forefront of a movement toward understanding and resolution.

As we have raised the age and education requirements of police applicants in New York in response to the Mollen Commission, we must address a broad range of cultural issues in the many diverse communities we police. We must put on the streets cops who more accurately reflect the communities they serve. Most police departments have failed to attract sufficient numbers of minority police officers, particularly black males. In the past thirty years, the percentage of black cops in New York City has risen less than 4 percent. This dismal increase, in a city that is more than 25 percent black, masks a deeper failure. Black males make up the same 9 percent of the NYPD that they did in 1967. Without minimizing the contributions and competence of black female officers, we must make a special effort to attract black males for what they offer to policing and what they can contribute to their communities as role models with steady employment, able to raise strong families.

Police officers must at all times understand that while the public demands respect, the police must earn it. We can effectively police America's streets while continuing to reduce police brutality, disrespect, and misbehavior. Succeeding at both is the next frontier for American policing. I intend to stay fully involved in the debate and shaping of that frontier. Mutual respect is among the key issues that American society, along with the police, must face. In the last twenty years the police have clearly changed—and for the most part, changed for the better—in our willingness to address the crime problem. That new openness and ability to change will propel the police, and ultimately society, in new directions. While leading their organizations forward and teaching their officers to
reduce crime, police leaders must place a similar emphasis and priority on teaching cops new forms of behavior and respect for the residents of the communities they police.