NEW YORK — Edward Caban, who joined the New York Police Department (NYPD) as a junior patrolman in 1991 and has since risen through the ranks, was sworn in as police commissioner on Monday, becoming the first Latino to lead the service founded 178 years ago.
Mr. Caban was sworn in before Mayor Eric Adam at the Bronx train station, where he began his career. The mayor praised his new police commissioner as “a representative of this working-class town.”
Mr. Caban, the son of a transit officer who served with Mr. Adams when the current mayor was on the transit force, said he joined the NYPD as a “young Puerto Rican child at a time when “the top bosses in the police department didn’t really look like me.”
His beaming father, retired detective Juan Caban, and other family members joined Edward Caban as he was sworn in as the city’s top police officer.
Mr. Caban thanked Mr. Adams for choosing him to lead the 33,000-member police department.
“Being the first Hispanic police commissioner is an honor of the utmost importance,” said the principal concerned.
The 55-year-old has been acting commissioner since the resignation of Keechant Sewell, who announced last month that she was stepping down after 18 months.
Ms Sewell, the first woman to lead the department, did not provide a reason for her resignation, but there had been speculation that other officials, including Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III, an ally of Mr. Adams, undermined his authority.
MM. Both Adams and Caban congratulated Ms Sewell, who did not attend the swearing-in of her successor.
“Commissioner Sewell broke a glass ceiling, Caban said, and she did it with grace, confidence and honor.”
Mr Adams said Mr Caban, who served as First Deputy Commissioner under Ms Sewell, had ‘worked side by side with Commissioner Sewell to reduce shootings and murders to double digits’.
Mr. Caban worked in several city precincts as he rose through the ranks from patrol officer to sergeant, lieutenant, captain, executive officer, commander, assistant inspector, inspector and first deputy commissioner.
The police department he will lead, the largest in the country, is more diverse than the predominantly white, male police force he joined 32 years ago.
According to department figures, 31% of uniformed officers are Hispanic, a number slightly higher than the 29% identified as Hispanic within the city by the Census Bureau.
About 11% of the department’s officers are Asian and about 16% are black, compared to a city population that is about 14% Asian and 24% black.
2023-07-18 01:22:16
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