Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik says that when Mayor Giuliani goes, he’s going with him – slamming shut the door on talk he’d stay on the job under New York’s next mayor.
“I’m not staying, I’m not staying,” Kerik said yesterday. “My loyalty is to the mayor. When the mayor leaves, I leave.”
Kerik spoke during an interview held to mark his first anniversary in office tomorrow.
“Right now, I work for Mayor Giuliani, and that’s who I work for until Dec. 31,” Kerik said. “I have no idea what I’m doing after that, and, right now, I don’t really care. My concentration is performing and doing what the mayor put me here to do.”
Kerik, 45, several times cited his “loyalty” to Giuliani – who is godfather to Kerik’s infant daughter – as a prime reason why he would not be interested in staying on under a new administration.
He’s also concerned that the next mayor won’t share his and Giuliani’s management style.
“I respect all of the candidates,” Kerik said. But he added, “I don’t know if their theories on management are going to be the same.”
Kerik’s wish to leave in December is especially surprising, given that several mayoral candidates say they’d consider keeping him around.
“You know, I’ve heard this from time to time,” Kerik said of the mayoral candidates’ wishes to keep him. “I think it’s flattering but, for right now, I think I’m best suited where I’m at until the mayor leaves.”
In the interview, Kerik highlighted three key objectives he has tackled since taking office: continuing the effort to reduce crime; improving community relations; and improving morale.
Among the specific accomplishments, he cited:
* Crime so far this year is down 13 percent. Kerik pointed out that many believed it would be impossible for him to improve on the crime reductions of previous years.
* The creation of the Criminal Intelligence Section – a means of computer-tracking crime data to help detectives and cops stay on top of unsolved cases.
* Improving morale despite the city’s continued inability to reach a new labor contract with cops, and a record number of department retirements.
Kerik insists better maintenance of police station houses, putting an additional 1,900 patrol cars on the street, and merit promotions have helped keep cops happier than most realize.
“I see a change in the morale, in the e-mails I get, the letters I get, the calls I get, in the response I get when I go out into the field,” he said.
Kerik also confirmed a story in yesterday’s Post that he plans to fast-track the departmental hearings of up to a half-dozen cops accused of drunken-driving offenses.
The push comes after an off-duty cop who was allegedly drunk killed three members of one family in an accident in Sunset Park two weeks ago.
“I have to manage an agency, and I can’t have people running around drunk, killing people,” Kerik said.