NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell Resigns As Head Of Nation’s Largest Police Force
Keechant Sewell, the first woman commissioner of the New York Police Department, announced her resignation Monday (June 12) after 18 months as head of the nation’s largest police force.
“I have made the decision to step down from my position. While my time here will come to a close I will never step away from my advocacy and support for the NYPD and I will always be a champion for the people of New York City,” Sewell wrote in an email sent to the department’s 36,000 police officers, according to The New York Daily News.
Sewell, 51, didn’t give a reason for, or a date of, her departure from the force. But she’s expected to leave by July 1, The Daily News reported.
Mayor Eric Adams, a retired NYPD captain, appointed Sewell in 2022 to keep with his vow to name a woman to lead the NYPD.
“The commissioner worked nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a year and a half, and we are all grateful for her service. New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude,” Adams stated.
Sewell's departure appears abrupt, but an Adams administration official suggested that her resignation wasn’t a shock.
“Sewell had been out of the real decision-making in PD for some time,” the unnamed source told The Daily News. “Phil Banks (deputy mayor for public safety), Tim Pearson, the mayor himself — too many former PD execs around and with very real points of view on how to run the PD. That never left much room for Keechant Sewell to be PC.
The departing police commissioner and Adams were largely in sync, at least publicly, on all police policies. But last month she sought to punish Jeffrey Maddrey, the highest-ranking uniformed officer, by stripping him of 10 vacation days for alleged interference with the arrest of a retired officer accused of threatening a group of teens with a gun, The New York Times reported.
Police sources told The Daily News that Sewell’s move irritated Adams and City Hall but was supported by high-ranking NYPD executives.
Sewell, a Queens, N.Y., native, joined the NYPD after 23 years with the Nassau Police Department on Long Island where she served as the chief of detective.
