Kelly, Ray
Politics & Public Services
For Police Commissioner Ray Kelly the big question remains: If Mayor Bloomberg does not run for a third term, will the city's head cop throw his hat in the ring in 2009? When asked by Irish America two years ago about the possibility of a mayoral run, Kelly, a registered Independent, answered: "This is the job [Police Commissioner] I want and this is the job I am focusing all my energies on." Spoken like a true politician.
Kelly's actions have always been louder than his words. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he attended Catholic schools before entering the Marine Corps and serving in the Vietnam War. He retired as a colonel from the Marine Corps Reserves after 30 years of service in 1993. Policing, however, has played the biggest role in Kelly's professional life. With over thirty years experience on the force, Kelly was the first person to hold the position of Police Commissioner for two nonconsecutive tenures, from 1992-1994 under Mayor Dinkins and from 2002 to the present under Mayor Bloomberg.
From 1996 to 1998, Kelly was Under Secretary for Enforcement at the U.S. Treasury Department. He served as Vice President for the Americas of Interpol, the international police organization, from 1996-2000, and as Director of the International Police Monitors in Haiti, the U.S.-led force charged with ending human rights abuses and establishing a police force in that war-torn nation.
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. A second-generation Irish-American whose four grandparents were all born in Ireland, Kelly is married to Veronica and has two grown-up sons.
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