NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell to hand out promotions as last official act before she goes

Keechant Sewell’s last public act as the 45th NYPD commissioner in her relatively brief career with the nation's largest police department will be to preside over a promotion ceremony Friday morning at the police academy in Queens.

Later in the day, as Sewell becomes a civilian residing in Nassau County, many law enforcement officials and policing experts expect Mayor Eric Adams to reveal who her successor would be. Attention recently has centered around NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Edward Caban and current sanitation commissioner Jessica Tisch.

Adams has been coy about when he will announce his choice to replace Sewell, who many law enforcement officials said found the mayor’s micromanaging of the NYPD to be untenable during her 18-month term. 

“When I am ready to make the announcement, I will make the announcement,” Adams told reporters earlier this week.

Other possible candidates, sources say, include deputy mayor for public safety Phil Banks and head of city's probation department and former NYPD Chief Juanita Holmes.

Sewell, 51, stunned NYPD officials and the city when she suddenly announced on June 12 that she was resigning as top cop of the 34,000-member department after helping drive down serious crime.

Sewell, who was the first woman to serve as city police commissioner, declined to comment for this story.

She has not said why she is leaving, but many law enforcement sources in the NYPD and policing world believe she found the situation under Adams challenging. 

“There were a lot of scandals over the years, a lot of police commissioners forced to retire, but none walked away like we had now,” ex-NYPD officer and police historian Michael Bosak said.

Jillian Snider, another ex-NYPD officer who is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, believed Sewell was something of a figurehead under Adams.

“I feel that everything within the police commissioner’s purview is being dictated by the Mayor,” said Snider. “Insiders were surprised she lasted as long as she did.”

Adams and Banks were so out front publicly on law enforcement issues that Snider said some of her students thought that it was Adams who ran the department.

That made Sewell’s job very difficult, said Richard Aborn, head of the New York City Citizens Crime Commission, a nonprofit public interest group devoted to advancing policy discussion about crime and law enforcement.

The 57 year-old Caban, a Manhattan resident, is seen as the logical interim choice to replace Sewell because he was her second in command and can move seamlessly into the top job, former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said.

“Caban is part of the inner circle, he would be a logical choice,” said Bratton. “He knows the various players … he has a big head start in that sense.”

Although Sewell was touted by Adams as the first woman commissioner in New York City history, she never had an easy time in what is a male-dominated culture of the department, said Snider.

Tisch, 42, whose family is well connected politically and wealthy — her father James is head of Loews Corporation — has operated in the administrative level of the NYPD for years.

Tisch started out her career in New York City as a staff attorney, and later served as head of the department’s office of information and technology, where she supervised the roll out of the body camera initiative and other technological innovations. She was appointed by Adams to be sanitation commissioner in April 2022.

Tisch’s history of various jobs in the NYPD gives her familiarity with the command structure, said Bratton, noting she doesn’t have the practical law enforcement experience that seems to be a prerequisite for the job in the modern era.

Tisch didn’t return a request for comment.

“Almost every police [commissioner] in New York started out walking a beat,” Bratton said.

Caban, on the other hand, joined the NYPD as an officer patrolling the Bronx in 1991.

According to his official biography, Caban rose steadily through the ranks, making captain in 2005 and in 2006 commanded the 25th Precinct in Manhattan. In 2015, he was promoted to the rank of inspector.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD detective who also teaches at John Jay, said whoever takes over as top cop, the rank and file officers will continue to do their jobs.

“The police department can run itself,” Giacalone said.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.