NYPD Chief Raymond Kelly Addresses
New York City Security Concerns at Baruch Policy Breakfast

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly was a much sought after guest speaker at Baruch’s School of Public Affairs spring Public Policy Breakfast on April 28, where he addressed his department’s preparation for security threats in preparation for hosting the Republican National Convention at summer’s end.

It was a media-drenched event, with reporters from the major dailies and local television news teams as well as from such other outlets as PBS and Vanity Fair magazine.

Kelly laid out a complex program of preparations for the Convention, including plans to search with bomb-sniffing dogs every commuter train arriving underneath Madison Square Garden before it enters the city. For those three days, Kelly said, Long Island Railroad and certain Amtrak trains would be stopped before entering the tunnels leading into Pennsylvania Station (underneath the famous arena on 34th Street) until such searches were complete.

The only person to be appointed to the post of Police Commissioner for two separate tenures, Kelly served as the senior managing director of global corporate security at Bear, Stearns, & Co. Inc. before commencing his latest term under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He has also served as Vice President of the Americas for INTERPOL, and as director of the International Police Monitors in Haiti, for which he was awarded the Exceptionally Meritorious Service Commendation by former President Bill Clinton.

The School of Public Affairs (SPA) hosts such public policy breakfasts on a regular basis during the academic year. According to Dean Stan Altman, the breakfasts serve the school’s mission of providing a forum for open public discussion with governmental and other leaders on matters of pressing political and social importance. This year, SPA celebrates its tenth anniversary as a school, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Baruch’s program in public administration.