Crime fighter focuses on capital

N.Y. ex-commissioner advising Annapolis police

"Howard is just one of those people who is a naturally gifted leader and administrator," Giuliani said. "It could be a computer business, a banking business, and he would just lead it. ... I think he is very well-suited for this role. I know people think of him as being an executive who runs things, but he's been doing security consulting all over the world. You give advice, but you don't get to carry it out. That's a role he's very familiar with."

The city has done business with Safir before. His private risk-mitigation firm received a $42,500 contract in 2004 to conduct a management audit of the Annapolis Fire Department. SafirRosetti, formed by Safir after he retired from the New York City Police Department in 2000, is expected to have $40 million in revenue this year. But Safir said he is willing to offer advice pro bono to Pristoop.

Safir studied history and political science at Hofstra University on Long Island and began his law enforcement career in 1965 as a special agent in the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a precursor of the Drug Enforcement Administration.After retiring from the federal government, he took the reins of New York's Fire Department in 1994. Two years later, he was appointed police commissioner.

Though crime fell sharply while he was commissioner - homicides fell 44 percent and major crime 38 percent - his four-year tenure was marked by controversies including the shooting death of an unarmed black man, Amadou Diallo, who was killed by police in a hail of 41 bullets in the hallway of a Bronx apartment building, and the sodomizing of Abner Louima by officers in a police precinct.

Safir called the incidents "terrible tragedies" but says he led the department honorably.

"You have to work with the community," Safir said. "And it's not the loudest voice you have to work with; it's the good people in the community you have to work with."

Louis Matarazzo, president of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association of the City of New York, which cast a vote of no-confidence in his leadership, said crime was declining before Safir's tenure and that he could be "difficult" when dealing with pay and benefits, noting that officers went two years without a pay increase.

"Crime went down under him; that's all well and good," Matarazzo said. "But it had to do with the mayor. It was the mayor's policies."

Safir acknowledges making mistakes as police commissioner but proudly points to his successes.