Newsroom > How’d He Do? President Travis Weighs In on His Former Boss, the Late Mayor Ed Koch

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How’d He Do? President Travis Weighs In on His Former Boss, the Late Mayor Ed Koch

John Jay College President Jeremy Travis, who served as a special criminal-justice adviser under former New York City Mayor Ed Koch in the 1980s, was among those cited in a recent analysis by The New York Times of the three-term mayor’s record.

The analysis and President Travis’s comments appeared on February 2, one day after Koch died of congestive failure at age 88.

President Travis praised the Koch administration for what he termed a “heroic” response to spiraling crime in the city, despite the police department being seriously understaffed as a result of the 1970s fiscal crisis. Gains were made by employing innovative techniques such as concentrating police efforts to address open-air drug markets, President Travis said, but he conceded, “An under-resourced department is not effective in fighting crime,” he told The Times.

To read the complete article with President Travis’s comments, click here.