NEW YORK, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) is retiring after three years in office, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.

James O'Neill, 61, will be replaced by Dermot Shea, currently the NYPD's chief of detectives, the mayor announced at a press conference, adding that O'Neill will join the private sector after stepping down.

The chief of the country's largest police department has led the NYPD's response to several terror attacks in New York City, including a pipe bomb blast in 2016, and a deadly truck attack in 2017 in Times Square.

He also brought down the city's major crime rate to a record low in the first half of 2019.

At the press conference, O'Neill said his earlier decision to fire officer Daniel Pantaleo, who caused the chokehold death of a black man in the borough of Staten Island five years ago, has weighed on him heavily, but it's not a factor of his leaving.

O'Neill joined the NYPD as a transit officer in 1983, and was appointed as the police commissioner in September 2016.

He said he would leave the job in a month. Enditem

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