NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, unwanted by Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, is in the running for a top security job at JPMorgan Chase, sources at the financial giant told The Post.
The position would include overseeing the firm’s cyber-security, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
When asked for comment about Kelly’s potential career move, his personal attorney said in a statement, “The Police Commissioner has not accepted any post governmental offers. … Because of city [Conflict of Interest Board] rules, he has not even had discussions with, much less accepted any offer from anyone who does business with the city and will not do so until he leaves office.”
Kelly was widely expected to vacate the post he held for 10 years with the election of Bill de Blasio, a sharp critic of his stop-and-frisk policy.
Sources familiar with the situation said Kelly’s position could include a seven-figure salary and bonuses.
The firm’s senior security officer, Thomas Higgins, left about a month ago and has not been replaced.
Kelly has a great rapport with JPMorgan’s senior leaders, in particular Chief Executive Jamie Dimon.
Kelly sent Dimon a thank you note in 2010 professing his “profound gratitude” to JPMorgan for donating $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation, the private fund-raising arm of the department.
Kelly — who was also police commissioner from 1992 to 1994 — has experience in the banking world. He was the managing director for corporate security at Bear Stearns from 2000 to 2001.
JPMorgan officials refused to comment on the report.
Kelly is also pitching a book to publishers but it won’t be a tell-all about his tumultuous times in the NYPD, sources said.
“It’s not an autobiography,” said a source familiar with the proposal. “It’s a straightforward book about police work in general.”
De Blasio hasn’t said whom he would name as Kelly’s replacement. On Wednesday, he said his transition team would help him pick a first deputy mayor, who would, in turn, help him name a new commissioner.
But many NYPD officers, detectives and supervisors told The Post they hope he chooses Bill Bratton, who succeeded Kelly once before, in 1996. Bratton has indicated he’s interested.
They gave Bratton a thumbs-up for his experience and because he has no ties to Kelly holdovers.
“He would clean house like last time,” said one source. “He is not a micro-manager,” said another, making an implied criticism of Kelly.
Kelly’s chief of department, Philip Banks, has also emerged as a possible successor.
De Blasio is already unpopular with New York’s Finest for vowing to drop Mayor Bloomberg’s appeal of a federal judge’s ruling that stop-and-frisk is unconstitutional and that the department needs an outside monitor.
The city’s police unions vowed to fight the changes.
“We intend to do whatever is necessary to stop these so-called reforms,” said Al O’Leary, spokesman for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
Detectives Endowment Association President Michael Palladino said, “The entire decision should be dismissed.”
With additional reporting by Laura Italiano and Jamie Schram