In New York City, William Bratton has been publicly sworn in as the commissioner of the New York City Police Department. He returns to the job after heading the NYPD in the mid-1990s when he embraced the controversial “broken-windows” strategy of cracking down on low-level offenses. Bratton was appointed by new Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has vowed to curb the police practice of stop-and-frisk, a tactic Bratton actually expanded while heading the Los Angeles police. On Thursday, Bratton said he would ensure stops are performed constitutionally.

William Bratton: “The mayor has made it quite clear, and I’m reinforcing that, that the concerns about a progressive mayor coming in, that basically, reining in the police, he has made it quite clear that his concerns are around the issue, stop, question and frisk, and that in all things we want to do it constitutionally — you’re going to hear this ad nauseam from me — constitutionally, respectfully, compassionately, because that’s what it’s all about.”

In August, a federal judge ruled the stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional and ordered reforms, saying police had relied on a “policy of indirect racial profiling.” De Blasio has said he will drop the city’s appeal of that ruling.