tillsonburg/iStock(NEW YORK) — New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill resigned Monday to take a job in the private sector, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision.Mayor Bill de Blasio will hold Monday afternoon news conference to make the announcement and name a replacement, the sources said.The mayor confirmed O’Neill’s departure from the NYPD in a tweet, saying he was the “architect of neighborhood policing. He drove crime to record lows while working tirelessly to bring police and communities together. He leaves behind a city that’s safer than it’s been in decades,” de Blasio said. ” I’m lucky to have worked with as good a man as Jimmy O’Neill.”The mayor met with senior police officials over the weekend, including extensive meetings with Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea and First Deputy Commissioner Ben Tucker, according to sources.Monday afternoon, de Blasio tweeted Shea would be the next police commissioner of New York City.”Born and raised in Sunnyside, Dermot Shea is a New Yorker through and through,” de Blasio wrote. “A 28-year veteran, he knows what it’s like to walk a beat and lead a precinct. He helped build the strategies that have driven crime to record lows. He’s a proven change agent. As Commissioner, Chief Shea will focus on putting 21st century precision policing to work in order to deepen police-community bonds and end the scourge of gun and gang violence.”O’Neill had been police commissioner since the Chelsea bombing in September 2016 and has seen the department through two other terror attacks: the Halloween truck attack on the west side and the detonation of a pipe bomb beneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal.O’Neil also oversaw a continued drop in crime and a reduction in arrests, but part of his administration was haunted by difficult decisions after the death of Eric Garner, which cost him a loss of faith among some in the rank and file.Copyright © 2019, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
