How Can NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Heal Rift With Police

What can NY Mayor Bill de Blasio do to heal his deepening rift with the New York Police Department?

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (C) is seated between New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton (L) and the Rev. Al Sharpton during a round table discussion convened to ease tensions over the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died from a police choke hold while being arrested. De Blasio has been unable to heal the deepening rift with the NYPD and erase the perception that he is not supporting the police. AP Photo/New York City Mayoral Photography Office, Bob Bennett

NEW YORK—What can Mayor Bill de Blasio do to heal his deepening rift with the New York Police Department?

His playbook for erasing the perception that he is not supporting the police—a problem that has escalated in the wake of the killings of two officers—has included face-to-face-meetings with police union officials, warm rhetoric about the work cops do, and stepped-up efforts to negotiate new police labor contracts. Nothing has worked.

The unions have demanded that de Blasio apologize.