Mayor-elect Eric Adams is slated to appoint Keechant Sewell as the next NYPD commissioner after the department’s current top head steps down at the end of the year, multiple sources told our sister network NBC 4 New York.
Sewell would become the first black woman to hold the highest rank in the New York Police Department. She is currently serving as Nassau County Chief of Detectives. An Adams spokesman declined to comment.
Sewell, a native of Queens, is a 22-year veteran of Nassau County service and is well loved in her department. He has held numerous leadership positions ranging from leading major cases to hostage negotiation, which impressed Adams, according to sources.
Sewell beat out several candidates, including former Seattle commissioner Carmen Best, according to sources.
The announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday morning around 8:30 a.m. in Queens.
News of the landmark appointment comes less than a week after it was revealed that current NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and the department’s second-in-command, First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker, will be finishing their full terms and leaving. They will retire at the end of the year.
“Police Commissioner Shea and First Deputy Commissioner Tucker will have much more to say in the coming weeks as they discuss their public service and gratitude to the city and the men and women of the Department,” an NYPD spokesperson confirmed Dec. 2.
Administratively, the police commissioner must notify you 30 days in advance.
Born and raised in Sunnyside, Dermot Shea is a New Yorker through and through. A 28-year veteran, he knows what it’s like to patrol the streets and lead a barracks. He helped build the strategies that have brought crime to record lows. a proven agent of change, “Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted the day he announced that he had chosen Shea as O’Neill’s replacement.
“As Commissioner, Chief Shea will focus on putting 21st century precision policing to work to deepen police-community ties and end the scourge of gun and gang violence,” he added.
Prior to his role as commissioner, Shea, a 28-year service veteran, was promoted to Chief of Detectives on April 16, 2018. Prior to that, he served as Chief of Crime Control Strategies. He also spent more than 4 years as Deputy Commissioner for Operations.
As Chief of Crime Control Strategies, he was responsible for analyzing crime trends throughout the city and developing the department’s crime control plans and procedures.
Shea also served as an executive officer for Barracks 47 and the Manhattan South Detective District, and worked at Barracks 24, 46 and 52, as well as the Narcotics Division.
Meanwhile, Tucker began his career with the New York City Police Department in 1969 as a police apprentice and received specialized training from physicians and substance abuse experts to participate in the first ever drug prevention education program sponsored by the New York Police Department.
Finally, Tucker became a police officer in 1972 and was promoted to sergeant in 1987.
Tucker had several roles during his decades-long career with the NYPD, according to his city bio, including police academy instructor, legal counsel in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs; and Deputy Director of the Civil Complaints Review Board.
Tucker also served as Deputy Assistant Director for Law Enforcement Services in the Mayor’s Office of Operations, and First Deputy Commissioner and Executive Director of the Commission on Human Rights under Mayor Edward I. Koch. He was also chief operating officer in the Manhattan Borough President’s office. During the Bloomberg administration, Tucker also served as Executive Director of School Safety and Planning for the Department of Education.
In 1995, then-President Bill Clinton appointed Tucker as Assistant Director of Operations in the Office of Community Oriented Police Services of the United States Department of Justice. Then, in 2009, Tucker was nominated by then-President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate as Deputy Director of State, Local, and Tribal Affairs within the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Additionally, Tucker also led research projects at New York University’s Substance Abuse Strategy Initiative and Columbia University’s Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.
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