Crime & Safety

WATCH: Bill Bratton Receives Send-off on Final Day as Commissioner

The commissioner's exit from One Police Plaza was a time for celebration for police, but also protest for those angry with his tactics.

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — The NYPD sent off Commissioner Bill Bratton in grand fashion on Friday, saying goodbye to a man who spent the last 35 years working in police departments around the country.

Bratton announced he would be leaving the force on Aug. 2, and officially submitted his resignation this week. Chief of Detectives James O'Neill will take over as commissioner.

The ceremony was streamed live on the NYPD Facebook page at 2:45 p.m., and you can watch a replay above.

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But it also gave protesters one last chance to make their opinions of the at-times-controversial commissioner known. Bratton's first tenure as commissioner in New York, from 1994 to 1996, accompanied an uptick in "broken windows" policing, a theory that arresting people for small crimes would prevent the same people from committing more serious ones. Bratton holds a belief in that theory to this day.

Photo Credit: @NYPDnews/Twitter

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