Keechant Sewell will be the first woman to lead the New York Police Department, the nation’s largest agency with about 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees.
Ted Shaffrey / AP File Image
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Ted Shaffrey / AP File Image
Keechant Sewell will be the first woman to lead the New York Police Department, the nation’s largest agency with about 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees.
Ted Shaffrey / AP File Image
The mayor-elect of York City, Eric Adams, has made a historic choice to lead the city’s police force, the nation’s largest.
Adams named Nassau County Chief Detective Keechant Sewell the first female commissioner in the 176-year history of the New York Police Department. She will also be the third Black commissioner in the department’s history.
Sewell told The New York Post, first announcing her date, “I’m here to meet right now.”
The results of her appointment come at a tumultuous time for the city’s police force.
The ongoing discussions about police reform and undermining of institutions in the city and across the country, have raised tensions between police and citizens. Additionally, shootings and violent crime rates have increased in 2021 compared to last year, according to data from the NYPD.
Adams’ new leadership, as well as a new police commissioner to head the division, will re-establish the city’s police force of more than 36,000 employees, and their union leaders, who who was used to a more strained relationship with Mayor Bill de Blasio. Employees turned their backs on de Blasio during a colleague’s funeral in 2015.
Patrick J. Lynch, head of the New York City Benevolent Police Association, said the association welcomes Sewell “to the second harshest police job in America.”
“The hardest person, of course, was the NYPD officer on the street. The New York City police officers passed our breaking point,” Lynch’s statement continued. “We need to fix that problem to get our police department and city back up and running. We look forward to working with her to accomplish that goal.”
Sewell, a native of Queens, has worked in the Nassau Police Department for 23 years dealing with drugs, major cases and hostage negotiations, based on New York Times. She was promoted to chief detective last year.
“I grew up in Queens,” Sewell said in a video interview with Post. “This is my city, and now that this is my department, I feel like I’ve gone in a circle.”
Adams, who will become the city’s second Black mayor, will be sworn in on January 1.
