Phil Pulaski and NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly

Phil Pulaski has 38 years of law enforcement experience, and served for more than 33 years with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) where, as a senior police executive, he managed patrol, investigative, counterterrorism and other public safety operations. From 2002 to 2013, Phil Pulaski worked for NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly in numerous exceptionally mission-critical positions. Commissioner Kelly thought very highly of Phil Pulaski and promoted him to the absolute top ranks of the NYPD an amazing 3 times in 12 years.

Upon assuming office in January 2002, Commissioner Kelly chose Phil Pulaski to be the commanding officer of NYPD’s extremely critical counter-terrorist commands: first the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF), then the Counterterrorism Bureau and then the Intelligence Division. Several serious terrorist attacks on NYC were prevented as a result of the outstanding efforts of JTTF, Counterterrorism Bureau and Intelligence Division personnel. Phil Pulaski was subsequently promoted to Deputy Police Commissioner of Operations where he was responsible for NYPD’s crime reduction programs and, together with Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, directed the nationally recognized COMPSTAT (short for COMPuter STATistics) process. In 2009, Commissioner Kelly promoted Phil Pulaski to the legendary rank of Chief of Detectives. As NYPD’s Chief of Detectives, Phil Pulaski was responsible for 3,600 personnel who, during 2013, investigated more than 256,000 felony and misdemeanor crimes (including 335 homicides), and arrested more than 39,000 offenders.

During 2015, Commissioner Kelly’s book entitled Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City was published and rapidly became a best-seller. In his book, Commissioner Kelly describes Phil Pulaski as an “innovator” and “major contributor” to the success of the NYPD who “was constantly pushing the Detective Bureau forward, developing new ways to harness burgeoning technologies to help solve crimes.” The book chronicles Commissioner Kelly’s incredible life of service to the United States and New York City. Raymond Kelly is the longest serving Police Commissioner in New York City history and served twice as Police Commissioner: 1^st under Mayor David Dinkins in the early 1990s, and 2^nd under Mayor Michael Bloomberg from 2002 to 2013.

A major focus of the book is Raymond Kelly’s 2^nd appointment as Police Commissioner and his incredible success in making New York City the safest big-city in America with regard to both crime and terrorism while also maintaining a 75% approval rating from the City’s 8 million residents. The book also describes Commissioner Kelly’s incredible accomplishments as a United States Marine Corps officer during the Viet Nam war, undersecretary of the US Treasury for enforcement, commissioner of the US Customs Bureau and commander of the international police force in Haiti.

NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau’s Threat Reduction and Infrastructure Protection Section

Phil Pulaski has 38 years of law enforcement experience, and was the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Chief of Detectives for more than 5 years where he was responsible for 3,600 personnel. During his more than 33 year career with the NYPD, Phil Pulaski managed patrol, investigative, counter terrorism, community affairs and other public safety operations. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Phil Pulaski managed the NYPD’s counter terrorism and weapons of mass destruction operations. He also supervised, together with his FBI counterpart, numerous terrorism related investigations including the 9-11 World Trade Center attack and October 2001 anthrax attacks. Subsequently, Phil Pulaski served as commanding officer of the NYPD’s Counter terrorism Bureau where he managed the Threat Reduction & Infrastructure Protection Section, and the daily counter terrorism deployments in NYC involving more than 300 NYPD police officers as well as NYPD helicopters and watercraft.

Immediately upon assuming office in January 2002, NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly created the Counter terrorism Bureau comprised of approximately 400 police officers. One of the most important units within the Counter terrorism Bureau was the Threat Reduction & Infrastructure Protection Section (TRIPS). Police Commissioner Kelly realized that NYC’s iconic locations, buildings and professional sports venues were extremely vulnerable to terrorist attack. Commissioner Kelly also realized that NYC’s infrastructure including its bridges, tunnels, airports, subway & commuter rail systems, water supply facilities and power distribution grid required substantial target hardening. The mission of TRIPS was to provide expertise in developing security plans for critical buildings and infrastructure.

One of TRIPS’s most remarkable accomplishments was the development and publication of the book entitled, Engineering Security: Protective Design for High Risk Buildings. The purpose of Engineering Security was to provide the NYC building community with a guide to minimize the likelihood and mitigate the effects of a terrorist attack on a large building. Since September 11, 2001, government agencies and the private sector struggled to find a reasonable balance between security, on the one hand, and economics, creativity and openness on the other hand. Engineering Security struck that balance and was composed of two main parts. Part one explained the NYPD’s risk-tiering system that categorizes buildings into Low, Medium and High Tiers based upon assessed threat, vulnerability and impact levels. Part two contained a set of specific terrorist attack prevention security recommendations tailored primarily to High Tier NYC buildings. At the time of its publication in 2009, no such book had been written to meet the specific needs presented by NYC’s unique threat environment and its status as the primary target for attack by international terrorist organizations. The building community praised the NYPD for its initiative in publishing Engineering Security and overwhelmingly adopted its security recommendations.