James Patrick "Jimmy" O'Neill Jr. is an American police officer who served as the 43rd

Police Commissioner of New York City The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department and presiding member of the Board of Commissioners. The commissioner is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Mayor of New York City, mayor. The c ...

from September 2016 until November 2019. Prior to his appointment as Police Commissioner, O'Neill served as

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

's Chief of Department, the highest uniformed position in the department, in 2014–2016. In a meeting with the Mayor Bill de Blasio of October 31, 2019 O'Neill confirmed his intentions to depart the NYPD. On November 4, 2019 it was publicly announced that Dermot F. Shea would become the 44th Commissioner of the NYPD in a ceremony at 1 Police Plaza on December 1, 2019. On November 6, 2019, O'Neill announced that he had accepted a position as Senior Vice President of Physical Security for the financial firm

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

. On April 1, 2020, it was announced that O'Neill would be appointed as an advisor to the New York City government on COVID-19.

Early life and education

O'Neill was born to an

Irish American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

family, the fourth of seven children, to Helen and Joseph O'Neill. He was raised in the

East Flatbush East Flatbush is a residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. East Flatbush is bounded by Crown Heights and Empire Boulevard to the north; Brownsville and East 98th Street to the east; Flatlands, Canarsie and the ...

neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He holds a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in Government and a

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

degree from

John Jay College The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts co ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Career

O'Neill joined the New York City Transit Police in 1983, and began his career as a patrolman in Transit District 1. He was promoted to Sergeant in September 1987 and to Lieutenant in April 1991. In 1995, the transit police were merged into the NYPD. In 1997 he was promoted to Captain. Additional promotions were to Deputy Inspector in December 2001, to Inspector in August 2003, and to Deputy Chief in October 2005. On June 2, 2014, O'Neill was promoted to Chief of Patrol. Several months later, in November 2014, he was promoted to Chief of Department. In September 2016 he became police commissioner. On November 4, 2019, O'Neill resigned his post as Police Commissioner (effective early December 2019) and was replaced by former Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea.

Promotion to Chief of Department

On October 28, 2014, O'Neill became the Chief of Department for the NYPD's 36,000 uniformed officers, the highest-ranking uniformed position.

Police commissioner

On August 2, 2016, O'Neill was appointed Police Commissioner of New York City by Mayor

Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...

, effective September 2016. O'Neill was succeeded as Chief of Department by Carlos M. Gomez. On November 4, 2019, O'Neill announced his retirement as commissioner, and was replaced by former Chief of Detectives Dermot F. Shea at month-end.

Vapor wake canines

O'Neill widely deployed

vapor wake canine Vapor wake canines are dogs that have been trained to alert their human handlers to the presence of explosive threats so that they can be stopped before they become a danger, and these dogs can track explosive trails to potential bombers. Referen ...

s in the city to alert their handlers to the presence of explosives; these dogs can then track the scent to potential bombers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ONeill, James 1950s births Living people John Jay College of Criminal Justice alumni New York City Police Commissioners