NYPD Commissioner William Bratton has named Ben Tucker as his new second-in-command.

Tucker is a lawyer and a national substance abuse expert who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations.  

Before being sworn in at Police Headquarters, the 63-year-old said he grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant and originally joined the NYPD as a beat cop in 1969 after graduating from high school.

"To be standing here now with the shield having been presented — the First Deputy Police Commissioner shield — is really like a dream come true," he said. 

Philip Banks had originally been appointed to First Deputy but he resigned abruptly after disagreeing with Bratton over the scope of the job, press accounts said.

Tucker was retired from the NYPD when Bratton brought him in earlier this year to oversee retraining programs including how officers use force. Bratton said Tucker would be responsible for overseeing the NYPD's disciplinary process and working with the Civilian Complaint Review Board to make sure cases get resolved faster. 

"I don't like sitting, looking at CCRB or internal cases that are two or three years old. We need to get that moving forward and Ben will be working very closely on that," Bratton said.

In addition, Bratton said Tucker's experience as a lawyer would allow him to work with a new Inspector General and the federal monitors being brought in to keep tabs on the department's stop-and-frisk practices.