NYC Police Commissioner James O'Neill Presents at IBO Meeting In NYC Attended By Dennis O'Neill & Beacon Team Members
At a recent business networking meeting in Manhattan, Beacon's President Dennis O'Neill had the opportunity to meet the evening's featured speaker, James P. O'Neill, Jr., the 43rd Police Commissioner of New York City.
Dennis and Commissioner O'Neill shared a laugh when Dennis pointed out that they not only shared the same last name, but also seemed to have the same barber. During Commissioner O'Neill's talk, he mentioned that he started out his career working as a Surety Bond underwriter, before joining the NYC Transit police force in 1983.
Commissioner O'Neill was appointed NYC Police Commissioner in August of 2016, after nearly two years as Police Chief of the NYPD. During his 35-year career, Commissioner O'Neill rose through the ranks of the NYPD, working in a wide variety of roles and commanding three separate precincts. Coincidentally, Beacon Consulting Group has worked on a construction consulting project at one of the precinct station houses (located in Harlem) where Commissioner O'Neill had served as commander.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is the largest municipal police department in the U.S., with approximately 36,000 officers and 18,000 civilian employees. In the past 25 years, the NYPD has achieved significant reductions in both violent and property crime, ensuring that New York City has the lowest overall rate of major crimes among the 25 largest cities in the U.S. According to recent articles and news stories, the crime rate in NYC has plunged to the lowest level seen since 1950.
In recent years, Commissioner O'Neill has played a lead role New York City's community policing initiative, where NYPD officers spend more time working within specific neighborhoods. In this way, members of the NYPD become more integrated into the communities they serve, building trust, relationships and partnerships with residents and businesses at the neighborhood level. Commissioner O'Neill spoke at length to the group (the IBO / Irish Business Organization) about his career, some of the unique challenges the NYPD faces and the many initiatives that are underway to help continue to keep NYC residents, workers, and tourists safe.
