Former New York Police Department commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a radio interview that aired Sunday that it is “absolutely necessary” to have “deeper vetting” of people entering the United States.
Kelly, who served as NYPD commissioner from 1992 to 1994 and from 2002 to 2013, said that efforts to resettle refugees are “well-intentioned.” He added, “I think we need some deeper vetting, deeper examination of people who are coming in, it’s going to take a while, but I think it’s necessary in this day and age.”
In August, President-elect Donald Trump called for “extreme vetting” on immigrants coming from certain countries. Trump also called Hillary Clinton’s proposal to increase the amount of Syrian refugees entering the U.S. potentially the “great Trojan horse of all time.”
Kelly said during the interview with host John Catsimatidis on AM 970 that he thinks “the public wants a higher degree of comfort as to who’s coming in at this time.”
“I think it’s absolutely necessary to do a much deeper dive on people’s backgrounds,” the former NYPD commissioner added. During that same interview, he defended the now disbanded NYPD program that in part monitored Muslim communities. Kelly said that the unit was “very effective” in getting terror leads.
The former NYPD commissioner added, “This type of information may have helped the German authorities capture” the Berlin truck terrorist before the attack. “Hopefully, we’ll see in the next year or so a turnaround as far as proactive policing is concerned,” Kelly said.