Keechant Sewell should be the last figurehead NYPD commissioner: Anything else is a disservice to police and the public.
It’s impossible to fault Sewell for resigning Monday, after 18 months as the first woman to hold the title: City Hall’s game-playing gave her no other honorable choice.
On Sunday, The Post reported that she’d lost virtually all authority as commissioner — unable even to promote detectives without City Hall’s say-so.
The real decision-maker was plainly Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks, an ex-chief of the department who resigned amid a corruption probe in which he was named an unindicted co-conspirator.
Banks even held press briefings himself, rather than letting the police boss handle them, as is traditional.
Mayor Eric Adams hired her to make good on his vow to name the city’s first woman to lead the department.
But he made a mockery of his own vow by taking so much power out of her hands — and putting it into men’s.
Among other shocking moves, Adams praised and even promoted one of Sewell’s deputy chiefs, Juanita Holmes: She clashed with the commish on lowering training standards and hosting rapper Cardi B at the Police Academy — then allegedly went over Sewell’s head to get City Hall’s backing.
Another clash involved her plan to discipline another chief, Jeff Maddrey, who’d reportedly also done end-runs around her and who the mayor had praised.
And the mayor’s office also interfered when she sought to discipline Maddrey in a gun case.
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.
A “shadow commissioner” is a recipe for disaster.
It destroys the chain of command — at an agency where that’s a life-and-death matter.
And it tanks morale among the rank-and-file.
Sewell, notably, won the admiration of police union boss Patrick Lynch.
On Tuesday, she got a standing ovation at an awards ceremony.
Yes, every agency head, including the NYPD’s, ultimately answers to the mayor.
Voters hold him responsible if crime falls or rises.
But it’s a lot harder to keep it moving in the right direction when you’re playing these games.
If Hizzoner wants Banks running the Police Department, he should make it so and take the political consequences.
Otherwise, find someone you can trust with to openly wield full authority, and step back.