One day after Keechant Sewell abruptly resigned from her position as NYPD commissioner, there was little explanation for her departure.
However, Mayor Eric Adams pushed back against the idea that friction with City Hall was to blame.
Sewell did not speak publicly about her resignation, but in the afternoon she released a letter to “the people of the city of New York” in which she ticked off some of the department’s initiatives and successes, and thanked the mayor “for the opportunity to lead the nation’s largest and most storied police department, and be a part of an administration where making our city safer is the top priority.”
At an unrelated announcement, Adams declined, when asked by reporters, to share the reasons Sewell had given him for leaving.
“If Commissioner Sewell wants to tell you why she is leaving, then you should speak to her,” Adams said.
The mayor bristled at the idea that Sewell felt undermined by City Hall and made to compete with Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety. In one recent instance, the mayor sided with Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD’s chief of department, whom Sewell sought to discipline for meddling in the arrest of a former cop.
On Tuesday, the mayor suggested the bad blood was a fiction.
“Come on, let’s stop this. Let’s stop creating the narrative,” Adams said. “Everybody is talking about how much you loved her. Did you show her love when she was here? I showed her love. I adored what the commissioner was doing.”
The mayor said Sewell will stay on through the end of the month, but gave no timeline for naming a replacement. Speculation has centered on Banks, Maddrey and Edward Caban, the first deputy commissioner of the department.
At a Police Athletic League event Tuesday morning where she addressed the winners of a youth essay contest, Sewell received a standing ovation from the audience, including fellow NYPD brass.
She appears to have won the respect of the rank and file during her almost 18-month tenure as the city’s first female police commissioner, making her sudden departure all the more curious.
The mayor credited her for boosting morale and turning the tide on violent crime.
“Not only did I believe she was a great professional, but I just liked her as a person,” Adams said. “I just thought that she was extremely impressive from the first day that I interviewed her. I believe she had all the tools I needed.”
“She was just poised, and I’m just happy that I had her for those 18 months,” Adams added.
