The Wrong NYPD Chief

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, President Bush’s nominee to replace departing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, has an engaging life story. His tough-kid-with-grit story couldn’t be more engaging. He was then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s police chief at the time of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. He helped train Iraq’s still-emerging police force. He has ties to the Arab world through his Syrian wife and work experience with Saudi Arabia’s royal family.

Unfortunately, he’s not the New York police chief most suited for the job.

Kerik may have campaigned hard for Bush, but Raymond W. Kelly, a former head of the Customs Service who is in his second run as New York’s police commissioner, would have been a better choice. But then, Kelly, who has worked for Democrats, may be too independent-minded for this administration.

Ridge, the affable former governor of Pennsylvania, never became a commanding presence in the Bush Cabinet. His department was a stepchild in the administration from the beginning, pushed on a reluctant White House by an adamant Congress. Ridge was the butt of sometimes unfair ridicule about his color-coded terror alerts, duct-tape recommendations and bullying by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, even as he succeeded in improving airline passenger security and sketching larger roles for his $36-billion-a-year bureaucracy.

Creating one department that brings together the various government agencies charged with border security made sense, but it isn’t clear that this administration and the Congress are prepared to allow Homeland Security to fulfill its promise. Far more needs to be done to improve security on trains and at ports, air cargo facilities and private chemical plants. Republicans in Congress seem more intent on privatizing airport security, which would be a disastrous backward move.

Kerik will have to take on Republican leaders on these issues if he is to succeed, and fight the current, nonsensical anti-terrorism spending formulas that convert scarce security funds into political pork.

Kerik projects a tough-guy image, and his 9/11 credentials could give him added credibility to argue that more money needs to go to fortify actual targets. Currently, Wyoming gets seven times the per capita anti-terrorism funding of California. But Kerik, a Giuliani acolyte who was a relentless campaign attack dog for Bush, may simply give the administration cover to proceed on its present course. Even if he were inclined to make waves, his lack of experience at the federal level could prove a major handicap.

Kelly, on the other hand, would have brought a more bipartisan sensibility to the job, a wealth of federal experience and, for what it’s worth, a more distinguished police record. But given that we are talking about someone charged with protecting the nation from terror attacks, we hope that Kerik proves us wrong, and that it turns out he was the ideal New York cop for the job.