After a year and a half leading the nation’s largest police department, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell has announced her resignation.
In an email to NYPD staff, Sewell shared: “I have made the decision to step down from my position.”
- Advertisement -
She did not provide any explanation for her sudden departure or information on her next steps.
With officer morale as one of her priorities, she said she hoped the changes made under her leadership would be “lasting hallmarks of my focus on your wellbeing.”
Referring to her colleagues as “an extraordinary collective of hard-working public servants”, Sewell said the department had faced “tremendous tragedy, challenges, and triumphs” during her time at the helm, and is urging them to “do what you do well to secure this city” and thanked them for “stepping forward.” She also told them to “stay safe.”
As of yet, there is also no indication from NYPD on when her last day will be.
In a statement released shortly after news broke, Mayor Eric Adams thanked Sewell for her “devotion” and “steadfast leadership”. He said the commissioner’s efforts had “played a leading role” in the administration’s efforts to bring crime down. He said “New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude as she worked nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a year and a half”.
For the year and a half on the job, the Commissioner is leaving with significant achievements including an 11 percent decrease in homicides, 24 percent decrease in shootings compared to this time last year.
Other major crimes, according to NYPD data, including felony assault and grand larceny auto, are up from the first six months of 2022.
Keechant L. Sewell was appointed the 45th Police Commissioner of the City of New York by incoming Mayor Eric Adams in December of 2021. She previously served as the Nassau County Police Department’s Chief of Detectives.
Sewell joined the Nassau County Police Department in 1997 and graduated the police academy as the Class Speaker. She worked patrol in the Fifth Precinct in Elmont, New York where she was selected to become a School Resource Officer and a police liaison to the Wayside Home for Girls. She worked undercover assignments, promoted to the rank of Detective and assigned to the First Squad in Baldwin where she investigated and assisted with successful convictions in numerous cases.
After being promoted to Sergeant, Sewell was assigned as a patrol supervisor and subsequently became an investigator in the Internal Affairs Unit. Sewell then became a Detective Sergeant in both the First and Narcotics/Vice squads overseeing drug and gun interdiction and suppression initiatives.
She is a graduate of the 235th Session of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia where she was selected by her peers to be the Class Spokesperson for the National Academy’s commencement address.
She has attended the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police in Boston, Massachusetts, is a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force executive board member, a Counterterrorism Zone 1 co-chairperson, and is a New York State certified police instructor who develops and presents the department’s strategic communications, interview and interrogation and supervisory leadership curriculums. She is the recipient of the Meritorious Police Award, numerous community awards, town and county citations, and was selected as the 2021 Person of the Year for the Nassau County Detectives Association.
She is a FBI-trained hostage negotiator and was a negotiator for over twenty years, eventually becoming the lead Chief Negotiator and Commanding Officer of the department’s prestigious negotiation team.
Sewell was requested to participate in the NYPD-sponsored Women in Policing forum in 2018 and was invited to return to address the NYPD’s Women’s History Month celebration at the New York Police Academy, in College Point, in 2019.
Sewell has commanded two detective squads, was the Deputy Commanding Officer of the Fourth Precinct in Hewlett and was the Commanding Officer of the Seventh Precinct in Seaford. Sewell started and commanded the police department’s Major Case Bureau which included the Robbery, Electronics, Burglary, Crimes Against Property, Gang Investigations, Special Investigations, and Narcotics/Vice squads. She then went on to start and lead the department’s new Professional Standards Bureau with a focus on police accountability and procedures. In September of 2020, she was promoted by Nassau County Commissioner of Police to the position of Chief of Detectives.
