Outgoing NY police commissioner jabs FBI, critics

Ray Kelly has spent the past 14 years as New York’s police commissioner, a role that ends today. In an “exit” interview of sorts with The New York Times, Kelly touted the sharp decline of the city’s murder rate during his tenure, while once again dismissing critics of his department’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy that some have called racial profiling (and that incoming NY mayor Bill de Blasio has said he wants to reform). Moreover, Kelly says the counterterrorism unit he built within the bureau was so that the city would not have to rely on the FBI to be alerted of possible threats. That’s something he thinks Boston wants following this year’s Boston Marathon bombings, despite criticism Kelly’s program was too broad. Starting tomorrow, Kelly’s being replaced by Bill Bratton, a former commissioner for Boston and the NYPD, though more recently the chief of police in Los Angeles.