NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell gets standing ovation in first public appearance since announcing resignation
Outgoing Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell was met with a roaring round of applause at NYPD headquarters Tuesday morning in her first public appearance since she abruptly announced she would be stepping down.
The standing ovation, lasting for more than a minute, was initiated by First Deputy Commissioner Edward Caban before Sewell announced awards at the annual “Police Commissioner for a Day” ceremony in One Police Plaza.
The top-cop blushed and repeatedly motioned for the roughly 200 clapping members of the department and the public to sit down during the tribute — which came less than 24 hours after she shocked the city with her resignation.
Sewell, 51, told Mayor Eric Adams on Monday afternoon that she would be leaving the NYPD in the coming weeks and sent out an email to the police force telling them the news.
Her last day is expected to be June 30.
No replacement has been named.
Sewell became the first woman to lead the NYPD after being tapped by Adams at the start of his tenure in January 2022.
But that relationship soured over time and law-enforcement sources said Sewell became fed up with the outsized influence from City Hall and power struggle over the department.
Sewell had grown increasingly frustrated with the micromanaging from City Hall in promotions and not being to put her picks for police leadership, according to sources.
She was even denied being able to promote someone on her own team, sources said.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell's sudden resignation
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell abruptly announced Monday that she was stepping down after nearly a year and a half as the first woman at the helm of the NYPD.
Then-Mayor-elect Eric Adams tapped the Nassau County chief of detectives as the first female police commissioner of the NYPD in December 2021. Sources at the time said Adams had long had his eye on Sewell for commissioner after saying he wanted a woman to lead the department.
Sewell, a Queens native, was just the third black police commissioner after Benjamin Ward, who served from 1984 to 1989 under Mayor Ed Koch, and Lee Brown, Mayor David Dinkins’ first police chief, from 1990 to 1992.
She did not provide a reason for her departure, and it was not immediately clear who would be taking over to lead the largest police force in the country.
Sewell’s relationship with City Hall had seemed to sour in recent months, with the commissioner finding herself increasingly handcuffed when trying to make key department decisions, The Post reported.
“She was fed up,” an NYPD source said Monday of Sewell. “She was tired of being their puppet.”
Added another source, “She was great, someone who genuinely cared about cops, the public, and the rule of law. If she was given more authority, she would have done great things for this job.”
Most recently, Sewell issued Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey a command discipline of seven vacation days after the Civilian Complaint Review Board sustained an allegation of abuse of power against him for voiding the arrest of a former cop in a 2021 gun case in Brooklyn.
Police sources say Sewell was upset that Maddrey wouldn’t accept the discipline and decided to fight it.
Sewell also butted heads with then-NYPD Chief of Training Juanita Holmes, who went around the commissioner to get the mayor to approve eliminating a timed run requirement for recruits.
Holmes has since moved to run the city’s probation department.
