Former and potential future NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton Tuesday backed Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” pedestrian safety proposal to eliminate fatalities.
Bratton-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s top cop who also led police departments in Los Angeles and Boston-said at a street safety forum that the de Blasio can build upon Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s efforts to change the city’s landscape to benefit bicyclists and pedestrians.
“The new mayor elect coming in, the good news for New Yorkers, is also committed to expanding on that vision with a vision of his own,” Bratton said at the event, organized by Transportation Alternatives and the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. “The good news is that there is room for improvement.”
Bratton, who’s name has been floated as a candidate NYPD commissioner under de Blasio, said he started in traffic enforcement when he joined the Boston Police Department (“You don’t have the worst jaywalkers and worst drivers-Boston still has that claim to fame”) and was chief of police in car-heavy Los Angeles (“That is a city that focuses incredible energy ? on the issue of pedestrian safety”).
To continue driving down pedestrian injuries, Bratton praised speed and red light cameras and technology to identify emerging problem areas, but suggested that the NYPD needs to make pedestrian safety a priority.
“There’s so much technology that can help us to map it but it’s still going to require some old fashioned focus of how you utilize?your police officers,” Bratton said. “What is the emphasis of the department?”
