Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City
Two-time New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly opens up about his remarkable life, taking us inside fifty years of law enforcement leadership, offering chilling stories of terrorist plots after 9/11, and sharing his candid insights into the challenges and controversies cops face today.

The son of a milkman and a Macy's dressing room checker, Ray Kelly grew up on New York City's Upper West Side, a middle-class neighborhood where Irish and Puerto Rican kids played stickball and tussled in the streets. He entered the police academy and served as a marine in Vietnam, living and fighting by the values that would carry him through a half century of leadership-justice, decisiveness, integrity, courage, and loyalty.

Kelly soared through the NYPD ranks in decades marked by poverty, drugs, civil unrest, and a murder rate that, at its peak, spiked to over two thousand per year. Kelly came to be known as a tough leader, a fixer who could go into a troubled precinct and clean it up. That reputation catapulted him into his first stint as commissioner, under Mayor David Dinkins, where Kelly oversaw the police response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and spearheaded programs that would help usher in the city's historic drop in crime.

Eight years later, in the chaotic wake of the 9/11 attacks, newly elected mayor Michael Bloomberg tapped Kelly to be NYC's top cop once again. After a decade working with Interpol, serving as undersecretary of the Treasury for enforcement, overseeing U.S. Customs, and commanding an international police force in Haiti, Kelly understood that New York's security was synonymous with our national security. Believing that the city could not afford to rely solely on "the feds," he succeeded in transforming the NYPD from a traditional police department into a resource-rich counterterrorism-and-intelligence force.

In this vital memoir, Kelly reveals the inside stories of his life in the hot seat of "the capital of the world"-from the terror plots that nearly brought a city to its knees to his dealings with politicians, including Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama as well as Mayors Rudolph Giuliani, Bloomberg, and Bill DeBlasio. He addresses criticisms and controversies like the so-called stop-question-and-frisk program and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and offers his insights into the challenges that have recently consumed our nation's police forces, even as the need for vigilance remains as acute as ever.
1121194243
Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City
Two-time New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly opens up about his remarkable life, taking us inside fifty years of law enforcement leadership, offering chilling stories of terrorist plots after 9/11, and sharing his candid insights into the challenges and controversies cops face today.

The son of a milkman and a Macy's dressing room checker, Ray Kelly grew up on New York City's Upper West Side, a middle-class neighborhood where Irish and Puerto Rican kids played stickball and tussled in the streets. He entered the police academy and served as a marine in Vietnam, living and fighting by the values that would carry him through a half century of leadership-justice, decisiveness, integrity, courage, and loyalty.

Kelly soared through the NYPD ranks in decades marked by poverty, drugs, civil unrest, and a murder rate that, at its peak, spiked to over two thousand per year. Kelly came to be known as a tough leader, a fixer who could go into a troubled precinct and clean it up. That reputation catapulted him into his first stint as commissioner, under Mayor David Dinkins, where Kelly oversaw the police response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and spearheaded programs that would help usher in the city's historic drop in crime.

Eight years later, in the chaotic wake of the 9/11 attacks, newly elected mayor Michael Bloomberg tapped Kelly to be NYC's top cop once again. After a decade working with Interpol, serving as undersecretary of the Treasury for enforcement, overseeing U.S. Customs, and commanding an international police force in Haiti, Kelly understood that New York's security was synonymous with our national security. Believing that the city could not afford to rely solely on "the feds," he succeeded in transforming the NYPD from a traditional police department into a resource-rich counterterrorism-and-intelligence force.

In this vital memoir, Kelly reveals the inside stories of his life in the hot seat of "the capital of the world"-from the terror plots that nearly brought a city to its knees to his dealings with politicians, including Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama as well as Mayors Rudolph Giuliani, Bloomberg, and Bill DeBlasio. He addresses criticisms and controversies like the so-called stop-question-and-frisk program and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and offers his insights into the challenges that have recently consumed our nation's police forces, even as the need for vigilance remains as acute as ever.
9.99 In Stock
Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City

Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City

by Ray Kelly
Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City

Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City

by Ray Kelly

eBook

$9.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Two-time New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly opens up about his remarkable life, taking us inside fifty years of law enforcement leadership, offering chilling stories of terrorist plots after 9/11, and sharing his candid insights into the challenges and controversies cops face today.

The son of a milkman and a Macy's dressing room checker, Ray Kelly grew up on New York City's Upper West Side, a middle-class neighborhood where Irish and Puerto Rican kids played stickball and tussled in the streets. He entered the police academy and served as a marine in Vietnam, living and fighting by the values that would carry him through a half century of leadership-justice, decisiveness, integrity, courage, and loyalty.

Kelly soared through the NYPD ranks in decades marked by poverty, drugs, civil unrest, and a murder rate that, at its peak, spiked to over two thousand per year. Kelly came to be known as a tough leader, a fixer who could go into a troubled precinct and clean it up. That reputation catapulted him into his first stint as commissioner, under Mayor David Dinkins, where Kelly oversaw the police response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and spearheaded programs that would help usher in the city's historic drop in crime.

Eight years later, in the chaotic wake of the 9/11 attacks, newly elected mayor Michael Bloomberg tapped Kelly to be NYC's top cop once again. After a decade working with Interpol, serving as undersecretary of the Treasury for enforcement, overseeing U.S. Customs, and commanding an international police force in Haiti, Kelly understood that New York's security was synonymous with our national security. Believing that the city could not afford to rely solely on "the feds," he succeeded in transforming the NYPD from a traditional police department into a resource-rich counterterrorism-and-intelligence force.

In this vital memoir, Kelly reveals the inside stories of his life in the hot seat of "the capital of the world"-from the terror plots that nearly brought a city to its knees to his dealings with politicians, including Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama as well as Mayors Rudolph Giuliani, Bloomberg, and Bill DeBlasio. He addresses criticisms and controversies like the so-called stop-question-and-frisk program and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and offers his insights into the challenges that have recently consumed our nation's police forces, even as the need for vigilance remains as acute as ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780316383790
Publisher: Hachette Books
Publication date: 09/08/2015
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: eBook
Sales rank: 747,321
File size: 19 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

With fifty years in public service, Ray Kelly is one of the world's most highly esteemed law enforcement leaders. A forty-three-year veteran of the NYPD, Kelly served in twenty-five different commands before being named police commissioner in 1992. Kelly was again appointed in January 2002 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, making Kelly the longest serving police commissioner in the city's history. Kelly holds degrees from Manhattan College, St. John's University School of Law, New York University Graduate School of Law, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 City Kid 9

2 Battlefields 24

3 On the Job 44

4 Taking Command 65

5 Crime Waves 73

6 Haitian Heat 100

7 Federal Time 117

8 Fighting Chance 134

9 Then Everything Changed 143

10 Long Shot Mayor 156

11 Building the Team 165

12 Crime Fighters 179

13 Bulking Up 197

14 Terror Never Sleeps 208

15 Target Tower 257

16 Reasonable Suspicion 270

17 Running Against the Police 283

18 Onward 295

Acknowledgments 314

Index 317

A Conversation with Ray Kelly 329

What People are Saying About This

Walter Isaacson

As NYC's police commissioner after 9/11, Ray Kelly was on the front lines of two of the most important issues of our time: confronting terrorism and dealing with the issues of race and policing. In this personal and thoughtful book, he weaves together his own life story with the tough decisions he had to make. It's a critically important book for anyone who cares about the justice and security issues we face today. --Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators

Mike Lupica

At a time when we needed heroes as much as we ever had, Ray Kelly was a hero of his city and his country. Vigilance is his story, finally told in his own words, about everything he did as police commissioner to keep New York City safe in a dangerous world. More than that, it is the story of a great American life. --Mike Lupica, New York Daily News columnist and #1 New York Times-bestselling author

Richard A. Clarke

Vigilance offers an intimate view into the life and career of one of America's finest leaders and how he transformed the NYPD after 9/11 into the world's most effective counter-terrorism police force, which continues to protect New York City today. --Richard A. Clarke, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Against All Enemies and former National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews