New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s choice of a new police commissioner Tuesday was meant to provide continuity after the resignation of Commissioner William Bratton while offering an olive branch to those who said Mr. Bratton’s policing tactics were unfair to minorities.

Mr. de Blasio called James O’Neill, the chief of department who becomes commissioner next month, “the architect of community policing.” But his aides assured business leaders that aggressive quality-of-life policing would continue.

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