New York City braces up to be led by the first female police commissioner ever!
Mayor-elect Eric Adams chose Nassau County Chief of Detectives Keechant Sewell to lead the country’s largest police department, making history.
“Keechant Sewell is a proven crime-fighter with the experience and emotional intelligence to deliver both the safety New Yorkers need and the justice they deserve,” Adams said in a statement. “Chief Sewell will wake up every day laser-focused on keeping New Yorkers safe and improving our city, and I am thrilled to have her at the helm of the NYPD.”
According to the office of Eric Adams, a formal announcement will be made at 8 30 am on Wednesday at the public housing development in Queens.
The Police Benevolent Association of New York City – a union that represents the officers of New York City welcomed Keechant Sewell as the next police commissioner.
“We welcome Chief Sewell to the second-toughest policing job in America,” PBA President Patrick Lynch said in a statement. “The toughest, of course, is being an NYPD cop on the street.”
Lynch further added New York City police officers “have passed their breaking point,” adding, “we need to fix that break in order to get our police department and our city back on course. We look forward to working with her to accomplish that goal.”
Eric Adams who was elected the mayor of New York City last month is a retired New York police department captain himself. He stated, “the foundation is safety. We can talk about all the other pieces, but we have to be safe. If we’re not safe, tourism is not going to return. No business is going to stay if their employees can’t ride our subway systems to get to their office space.”
The Legal Aid Society also welcomed the appointment of Keechant Sewell. The society released an official statement, “the next Commissioner must demonstrate an understanding that many community problems do not warrant a law enforcement response; that police misconduct must be taken seriously and addressed swiftly; and that tackling some of our city’s most pressing public safety issues, especially gun violence, requires full funding for proven, community-based approaches. Hope will bring a new approach to the helm of an agency in dire need of top-to-bottom reforms.”
