February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
Will he or won’t he?
With only days to go before New York’s Police Commissioner Howard Safir steps down, the guessing game continues over who Mayor Rudy Giuliani will select to lead the nation’s largest police department.
As the Echo went to press on Tuesday, City Hall had yet to announce the Mayor’s newly appointed commissioner. But speculation center on the two most likely candidates: Irish American chief of department Joseph Dunne and the city’s Correction Department commissioner Bernard Kerik.
After four NYPD cops were shot by a crazed gunman in Brooklyn last weekend, Dunne’s appearance without Safir at a prime time press conference only heightened some speculation that he is being groomed for the top spot.
A police spokesman said that Safir was out of town and his second in command Patrick Kelleher was unavailable for the press conference. As the NYPD’s chief of department, Dunne took an appropriate lead, the spokesman said.
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Still, among the ranks of the NYPD, Dunne was being unofficially touted as the man for the job. Should he be appointed to Safir’s post he would be the first Irish American police chief since Ray Kelly six years ago.
"Dunne has got the lead on the job unofficially. He’s well-respected with the rank-and-file and also with the minority community, and that’s important to the administration," one high-ranking police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"He already has an established dialogue with the minority communities. Kerik would have to come in from ground zero," the official said.
As head of the Brooklyn North operation, Dunne is credited with fostering good relations with minority communities at a difficult time for the department. Others said the Brooklyn-born chief has the experience and time in the department, knows all the managers and works well with the rank-and-file.
Kerik become the city’s correction commissioner in 1997. But he was also a decorated NYPD detective before Giuliani tagged him for the corrections post. Kerik worked with a Drug’s Enforcement Agency task force battling the Cali Cartel and was an army special forces trainer.
He has been praised for cleaning up the city’s correctional facilities, but insiders say he is known also as a loyal Giuliani man.