A Bronx NYPD precinct commander is quitting to protest the department’s handling of police reform and anti-brutality protests, The Post has learned.
Deputy Inspector Richard Brea is hanging it up after nearly three decades, Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa told The Post on Thursday following a phone conversation with Brea, who led the Bronx’s 46th Precinct.
Brea put in his papers because his bosses are not giving him enough guidance on how to get guns and drugs off the street now that the department has disbanded and reassigned its anti-crime unit, Sliwa said.
On Wednesday, the Captains Endowment Association, which represents Brea, sent a letter saying CompStat should be abolished because it pressured commanders to drum up arrests — or explain to angry bosses at monthly meetings why arrests are down. Sliwa says Brea, who was due to present his numbers Thursday, told him: “I’ll be more than happy to come to CompStat and get a beatdown, but I’m not getting guidance.”
Brea also griped that the department wasn’t giving him any guidance about what his officers should do with fireworks enforcement, Sliwa said.
The high-ranking cop was also incensed that the department had been caught flat-footed by looters who capitalized on police-brutality protest to wreak havoc in sections of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
“He was indicating the problems after looting — like not seeing them coming,” Sliwa said.
But the dissolution of the plainclothes anti-crime unit without guidance from on high was the last straw for Brea, who didn’t want to retire, according to Sliwa.
“How am I supposed to lead?” Brea said, according to Sliwa.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea last week announced he was dissolving the unit because it was responsible for an outsize number of complaints over aggressive or unprofessional policing.
The unit’s roughly 600 members were to be reassigned throughout the department, including as detectives and neighborhood coordination officers, Shea said.
“I’m doing this, and others may be following in my footsteps,” Brea also said, according to Sliwa.
Indeed, after news broke of his move, the departing deputy inspector was being hailed as a champion by cops who say they’ve felt triggered by the current political climate.
“Everyone is calling him a hero,” one source said. “Many of us wish we could [leave].”
Brea’s last day is Friday, Sliwa said.
Department members are planning a walkout ceremony for the retiring commander for 3 p.m. at the 46th Precinct station house, sources said.
Neither the NYPD nor the Captains Endowment Association union that represents Brea responded to a request for comment.