The city’s top cop took a shot Wednesday at one of his predecessor’s signature programs — the practice of sending rookie cops into high-crime areas to augment the precinct officers.
Police Commissioner James O’Neill described the program, known as Operation Impact, as a disservice to both young cops and the communities where they were sent.
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“We put them in a spot, in a situation where they didn’t appreciate the conditions of the precinct and didn’t get to know the communities as well as they should have,” O’Neill said.
“Impact was a good method for crime reduction but it really did a disservice to our new cops, and it did a disservice to the community, quite frankly.”
Impact was developed by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who during his 12-year tenure that began in 2002 often cited the program as a key reason for the decline in crime.
In January 2014, Kelly’s immediate successor Bill Bratton revamped the program to team rookies with more seasoned officers.
Bratton said rookie cops were focusing too much on stopping and frisking people, causing community tension.
