FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 23, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 15
Adams offi cially names new NYPD commissioner
BY DEAN MOSES
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
New York City mayor-elect Eric Adams
offi cially announced Keechant Sewell as
the 45th NYPD Police Commissioner
during an early morning press conference
on Dec. 15, less than one month
before the Brooklyn borough president
takes offi ce.
Sewell will make history next year as
the fi rst woman to lead the nation’s largest
police force and take the reins during a
time when the department hopes to mend
strained public relations following the
Black Lives Matter protests and concerns
of rising crime in the Big Apple.
Making the news public at the
Community Capacity center in
Queensbridge Houses, a Long Island City
neighborhood where the current Nassau
County chief of detectives of 25 years
and incoming top cop grew up, Adams
beamed with pride as he gushed about
Sewell’s resume to a legion of reporters.
“Th e chief of detectives for the Nassau
County Police Department, the fi rst Black
woman to hold that role — and now she
will make history again as the fi rst woman
to become commissioner of the largest
police department in our country, if not
the globe,” Adams said.
Directly below a mural of Malcolm X, he
revealed that when he interviewed Sewell
for the position and inquired why she
wanted to join the NYPD, she responded:
“My entire public safety career I was looking
Mayor-elect Eric Adams introduced his new police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, outside of
Queensbridge Houses.
for a mayor like you, but guess what,
your mayorship was looking for a police
commissioner like me.”
“Your personal story and the message
motivates me as we endeavor to provide
New Yorkers with the public safety they
need and the justice they deserve,” Sewell
said Wednesday. “Queensbridge Houses is
a part of my soul. I wish my parents were
here to point out the building and the
apartment where they began to give me a
Photos by Dean Moses
strong sense of purpose, commitment and
confi dence. To all the little girls within the
sound of voice, there is nothing you can’t
do and no one you can’t become.”
Th is news comes hot on the heels of
several retirements from the NYPD,
including high-ranking brass such as
Chief of Department Rodney Harrison
who has been tapped as the Suff olk
County top cop, while current NYPD
Commissioner Dermot Shea and First
Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker
are also exiting aft er extended service.
Adams compared his search for police
commissioner to a theory in quantum
physics in which you acknowledge the
existence of something and it becomes
apparent to you — and he says that there
has been so much talent in plain sight but
has yet to be acknowledged.
“We have witnessed so many women
who have conducted themselves in the
professional way, yet never received the
opportunity to do the job or the higher
level always sitting on the bench, never
allowed to get in the game. Th at is going
to stop,” Adams said. “I made it clear on
the campaign trail, I am going to fi nd a
woman police commissioner and I was
not going to lower my standards. I gave
my team a diffi cult task of fi nding someone
with the qualifi cations, the abilities,
understanding of policing and who was
on the ground.”
Adams shared he was more concerned
in a police commissioner who he says has
an emotional intelligence, not just academics
and Ivy League school material.
“How are you as a human being? Tell
me about your emotional intelligence. A
term we don’t use oft en that is the criteria
to serve in an Eric Adams administration.
You must not just be academically
intelligent; you must be emotionally
intelligent, and this is a personifi cation
of emotional intelligence. Th is amazing
future police commissioner standing
here,” Adams said.
He also discussed the success of a crisis
management system, and the need for it
to be implemented throughout high-risk
areas in New York.
“We want to acknowledge and put in
place that public safety is more than just
police. If you want to make our city safer
in the long run, it will require a new ecosystem
of public safety,” the mayor-elect
noted. “Th at is what we are going for and
it’s going to partner with the crisis management
system, clergy leaders, our tenant
associations, and other partners on
the ground and every agency in this city
is going to be part of the team of making
us safe and preventing crime in a real
way. So, our new police commissioner not
only brings a diverse set of experiences to
this moment, she exudes what it means to
be emotionally intelligent, calm, collected,
competent.”
Both Adams and Sewell underscored
that New York City is at a pivotal moment
as it faces the challenges of public safety
and accountability, which both stated, are
not mutually exclusive.
Sewell promised that as she takes the
role of police commissioner, she will follow
in the mayor-elect’s vision of working
with crisis management teams, build
community relations and lead with emotional
intelligence.
“I am forever grateful in this city, in
this moment, I have come full circle and
it is with a humble heart and clear eyes
about the tasks and challenges ahead that
I accept the position of New York City
commissioner. I have been immersed in
policing, in patrol law, to detective, my
experience as a hostage negotiator with
bringing transparency and accountability
to policing up to and including my
role as chief of detectives. I have watched
and admired and worked alongside the
remarkable members of the NYPD. It is
an honor and privilege to stand with them
now,” Sewell said.
Several journalists criticized Sewell’s
credentials, noting she is moving from a
position commanding hundreds to what
will soon be tens of thousands.
To this she replied: “Come and speak to
me in a year.”
Additional reporting by Ben Brachfeld.
Keechant Sewell shakes hands with offi cers. Read more on QNS.com.
/QNS.com
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
