6 DECEMBER 23, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
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.
“The 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 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 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.”
This 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. That is going to stop,” Adams said. “I
Keechant Sewell shakes hands with offi cers. Photo by Dean Moses
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.
This 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.
“That 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.
Read more on QNS.com.
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