--- title: Howard Safir | TIME description: Howard Safir is the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department (1996-2000) and Chairman and CEO of Vigilant Resources International (VRI). canonical: https://time.com/author/howard-safir/ og:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/author/howard-safir/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 300 og:image:height: 300 og:image:alt: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:type: profile twitter:card: summary twitter:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Howard Safir ## Howard Safir Howard Safir is the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department (1996-2000) and Chairman and CEO of Vigilant Resources International (VRI). ## Howard Safir *  Dec 2, 2015 ### [Firing Chicago Police Chief Puts Us in Danger](https://time.com/4132766/chicago-garry-mccarthy-fired/) 'We cannot let emotion and politics return us to the bad old days' [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) *  Jul 15, 2015 ### [Police Commissioner: 'Feel-Good' Policing Isn't the Answer to Increased Crime](https://time.com/3958499/big-city-crime-increase/) Stop demoralizing police officers—and start focusing on criminals [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) *  Jun 5, 2015 ### [Bad Old Days of Crime May Be Back](https://time.com/3908254/howard-safir-crime/) The current system of reforming police is broken—here's how to fix it [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) *  May 13, 2015 ### [Howard Safir: War on Police Is Causing Violence To Increase](https://time.com/3857023/national-police-week-war-on-police/) Police officers stand between civil society and chaos [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) *  Apr 8, 2015 ### [Howard Safir: Police Brutality Is Inexcusable — and Rare](https://time.com/3814344/walter-scott-howard-safir-police-brutality-is-inexcusable-and-rare/) To ascribe negative traits to the majority of police officers is wrong [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) *  Jan 10, 2015 ### [Safir: The War on Police Hurts the War on Terror](https://time.com/3662529/howard-safir-the-war-on-police-hurts-the-war-on-terror-paris/) With police under siege, we are all more vulnerable to terrorist attack [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) *  Dec 21, 2014 ### [Anti-Police Rhetoric Unlike Anything I've Seen in 45 Years](https://time.com/3643286/howard-safir-nypd-shooting/) We have seen nothing but police bashing from some of the highest offices in the land. [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/howard-safir/","name":"Howard Safir"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/howard-safir/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/howard-safir/"},"name":"Howard Safir","jobTitle":null,"description":"Howard Safir is the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department (1996-2000) and Chairman and CEO of Vigilant Resources International (VRI).","url":"https://time.com/author/howard-safir/","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```