NYPD's tussle with mayor: An officer's perspective

In the so-called war between the NYPD rank and file and the city leadership, a noticeable slowdown in police activity garnered much public criticism. Minor offenses went largely unpoliced, leading to criticism that officers were jeopardizing public safety in order to further a personal agenda against Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been the target of union disdain for comments made in the Eric Garner case.

As arrests have started to pick back up, CBS News sat down with a veteran officer with more than two decades' experience - whose identity we're protecting - to discuss the slowdown, the politics behind it and his fellow officers' desire to get back to work.

"Public sentiment is starting to turn against us because the perception that, because we're unhappy with the mayor, we're not doing our jobs, which is protecting the city. And I think that, that's the reason why a lot of guys, myself included, want to get back to where we were. We wanna go back to work."

On the reason for the slowdown:

"There was definitely a slowdown after the death of the two officers in Brooklyn," the officer said. "A lot of it was caution, guys were just --afraid...a lot of it was anger as well, about the perceived anti-police sentiment expressed by Mayor de Blasio. It wasn't anything organized by the unions, it was just kind of a grassroots, if he's not gonna support us, why are we gonna go out and produce for him kinda thing."

On the union's role:

"I don't wanna say [it was] taken over [by the union]. I mean the union obviously can't advocate a strike or a slowdown of any kind due to the Taylor Law (the law that prohibits public employees from striking). At first they didn't discourage it, but it wasn't a policy message delegated from the union [to] you know, go out and stop writing summonses. That was just something [that was] a grassroots thing among cops in the precinct, cops on patrol."

On why the slowdown is being reversed:

"I think its just a matter of, we kind of made our point, and its time to go back to work. I mean, believe it or not, most of the cops who took this job, myself included, took this job because we like to help people. A lot of us live in the city, we care about the city. I personally, I'm tired of picking up the paper every day and reading about people wanting de Blasio to apologize, and and then we come back with something else. It's just time to go back to work. We're professionals. We have to act like professionals. And it's a very dangerous world now, what's going on in Paris. ... I mean I am shocked that something hasn't happened here yet, I really am. I think we're long overdue and we gotta be on our toes and we gotta be vigilant. And this does distract from it."

On whether public safety has been compromised:

"The slowdown had nothing to do with public safety. It had to do with discretionary things. ... They see someone urinating in public or drinking a beer, they wouldn't write them a criminal court summons. They pull someone over for running a red light, they'll give them a warning instead of giving them a ticket. I mean, it's stuff that needs to be enforced, it's important, 'cause the quality of life, it leads to disorder and worse crimes. So on a short-term basis, letting one public urinator or one beer drinker go, it's not gonna endanger the safety of the public. On a long-term basis it will, which is why guys are trying to get back to work now."

On Mayor de Blasio:

"De Blasio and us - we need to just need to be grown ups. Like I said, we don't have to love each other. It's not gonna happen, we don't."