NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton to resign, James O’Neill set as replacement

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton is slated to announce his resignation, and Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to replace him with Chief of Department James O’Neill, according to The Wall Street Journal.

De Blasio’s press team sent out a public schedule update Tuesday morning, noting that de Blasio would make an NYPD-related announcement at noon.

According to the Journal, Bratton informed City Hall about his decision last week and officials have been interviewing potential replacement candidates. Bratton is expected to stay on the job until September, so he can help the new commissioner acclimate.

Bratton’s resignation comes a year after Bratton first told City & State that he was considering not staying on the job after de Blasio’s first term concluded. It also coincides with a recent string of protests by the NYPD Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association against the mayor outside his Brooklyn gym and Upper West Side home – and as Black Lives Matter activists called for de Blasio to oust Bratton.

De Blasio has struggled to please both police reform advocates who believe he’s not moving quickly enough to institute changes and officers, who have had a tense relationship with the mayor and have taken issue with how he described telling his biracial son to take care if interacting with police.