New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly will join a prestigious foreign policy think-tank based in New York when he steps down later this month as the longest serving commissioner in NYPD history.
Kelly will become a visiting fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the group said in a statement Monday.
Mr. Kelly is already somewhat familiar with the think tank. For example, he spoke there in 2009 at this event on the Post 9/11 NYPD.
Kelly's work at CFR will complement a contract he signed earlier this month to give highly-paid speeches with Greater Talent Network, whose roster of former law enforcement officials includes Louis Freeh, former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Here is what The Village Voice has to say:
The think tank has always been very, very kind to Kelly; in a 2009 forum on the post 9/11 NYPD, board member James D. Zirin called him a "visionary", credited him with reducing violent crime, and declared, "No police commissioner in our history has been as qualified as Ray Kelly at the time he took office." The same year, an "expert brief" put out by the CFR called the NYPD a "counterterrorism model," adding, "The counterterrorism program the NYPD developed gave new meaning to the phrase, 'think globally, act locally.' It has become the most global of local police forces."Here is the press release from CFR about Kelly joining the think tank. It says that at the think tank Kelly will focus on counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and other national security issues.
CFR was recently ranked as the 6th best think tank in the world and 3rd best think tank in the US by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings. CFR was also ranked as the 7th best think tank in the world for international economic policy.
