NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell leaving at the end of June, New York City Mayor Eric Adams says

Outgoing NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell will depart the nation's largest police department at the end of June, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday as he reflected on the commissioner's 18-month tenure.

Answering questions from reporters a day after Sewell announced she would resign as the city's top cop, Adams declined on Tuesday to say whether he has a shortlist of candidates and whether he would seek to appoint another woman as commissioner to lead the 34,000-member police department.

“I’ll figure out what I am going to do,” said Adams, while also heaping praise on the 51-year-old Sewell.

"I cannot thank her enough," the mayor said, crediting Sewell with tamping down crime. "I was proud that day when I appointed her, she came in with a hammer and she broke the glass ceiling, of being the first, not only woman, but one who just led this department from the front." 

Sewell took over the job in January 2022, when serious felonies in the city had risen by about 50% over the prior year. As of Monday, the crime increases had dropped sharply and were showing less than a 1% increase over 2022 levels — driven mostly by rises in auto theft and felonious assaults. Homicides were down 12.5% and shootings down 25%, according to the latest police statistics.

Adams, a former police captain, declined to discuss what Sewell told him about her reason for leaving. "I don't go into private conversations that I have with my commissioners and others," Adams said.

As of Tuesday, Sewell had not made public the reason she is leaving.

Late Tuesday, Sewell issued a letter to New York City residents, where she thanked the mayor for the opportunity to help make the city safer.

"The time I have spent in our communities — meeting everyday New Yorkers — has been among the most rewarding experiences of my tenure," she said on Twitter. "I have witnessed firsthand the bonds you have forged with the women and men of this department. Please continue to have faith in the work of the NYPD."

Addressing reports and comments by some officials that Sewell found herself restricted by micromanaging by Adams, as well as that of Phil Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, the mayor disputed claims that Sewell had no authority to handle police staffing changes and promotions.

“Let's stop creating the narrative,” Adams said. “This commissioner was given an amazing opportunity to show her skill set and she did, and she did an amazing job … Don't put words in her mouth that she did not tell you. She made the decision that she wanted to do something else and I respect that."

Adams said some people might call him a micromanager, but he was doing the job he was elected to do. "New Yorkers elected me to be mayor … I constantly inspect all the time, that's how I function, that's how I operate, that's how we get the product that we're getting. … Some people say that's a management problem, I don't. I say, I'm going to work harder than anyone in this city to get the product that we deserve."

Some law enforcement and union officials said they expected that the current First Deputy Commissioner Edward Caban would fill the top job on an interim basis when Sewell makes her exit on June 30. Another potential candidate being mentioned as successor to Sewell is Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey, they said.

Sewell, a Queens native and Valley Stream resident who was the chief of detectives of the Nassau County Police Department before she took the helm of the NYPD, was the first woman and third Black person to lead the department.

When he selected Sewell, Adams said he was impressed with her "emotional intelligence," recalling how during a mock news conference designed to test how she would fare under the glare of the national media, she first expressed concern for the family of a person shot by the police.

On Tuesday, Sewell received a loud, 2-minute standing ovation during a special program in the auditorium at police headquarters at 1 Police Plaza in lower Manhattan that was attended by some of her senior staff and those in the audience.

A smiling Sewell acknowledged the tribute.