NYC’s First Female Police Chief Urged to Make ‘Top to Bottom’ Reforms

Keechant Sewell. Photo via MSNBC

New York City’s new police-chief designate Keechant Sewell has been given an early warning of the task she faces as head of the nation’s largest police force.

Welcoming the news of her historic appointment as the New York Police Department’s  first female chief, the city’s Legal Aid Society said it hoped she “will bring a new approach to the helm of an agency in dire need of top-to-bottom reforms.”

“The next Commissioner must demonstrate an understanding that many community problems do not warrant a law enforcement response; that police misconduct must be taken seriously and addressed swiftly,” the society said in a statement reported by CNN and other media.

“Tackling some of our city’s most pressing public safety issues, especially gun violence, requires full funding for proven, community-based approaches.” the statement said.

Sewell, currently the Nassau County chief of detectives, was praised by Mayor-elect Eric Adams as “a proven crime fighter with the experience and emotional intelligence to deliver both the safety New Yorkers need and the justice they deserve.”

Mayor-elect Eric Adams will be counting on Sewell to help him fulfill his campaign promises to address a troubling rise in violence and to rein in police abuse at the NYPD. reports the New York Times.

She comes from a department that has about 2,400 uniformed officers — less than a tenth of the size of the roughly 35,000 officers employed by the New York Police Department.

The choice of Sewell comes as a surprise.  While Adams pledged that he would choose a woman as police chief, the leading candidates were senor police managers from outside New York, including Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and former Seattle police chief Carmen Best.

Sewell, a 23-year veteran of the Nassau Police Department, is in fact a native New Yorker.

“I grew up in Queens,” she said in a video interview. “This is my city, and now this being my department, I feel like I’ve come full circle.”

Sewell worked in the narcotics and major cases units and as a hostage negotiator in Nassau County, a suburban jurisdiction adjoining New York, where she was promoted to chief of detectives in September 2020.

Chief Sewell be the third Black commissioner to lead the city’s police department among an upper echelon that has, thus far, remained overwhelmingly white and male.

Her appointment was also welcomed by the city’s combative police union chief Patrick Lynch with a call for her to get the department “back on course.”

“We welcome Chief Sewell to the second-toughest policing job in America,” Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Associsation,  said in a statement. “The toughest, of course, is being an NYPD cop on the street.”

Lynch added New York City police officers “have passed their breaking point,” adding, “we need to fix that break in order to get our police department and our city back on course.”

“We look forward to working with her to accomplish that goal,” Lynch said.

But the comment from The Legal Aid Society, a group that represents poor New Yorkers and has pressed for police accountability, made clear Sewell’s honeymoon might be short.

“The next Commissioner must demonstrate an understanding that many community problems do not warrant a law enforcement response; that police misconduct must be taken seriously and addressed swiftly; and that tackling some of our city’s most pressing public safety issues, especially gun violence, requires full funding for proven, community-based approaches,” the statement said.

“The Commissioner must also immediately meet with community members to build real and meaningful pathways to input and accountability,” it added.