NEW YORK — New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell will step down as head of the nation’s largest Police Department, sources told our sister network. NBC New York.
In a memo to NYPD personnel released Monday afternoon, Sewell said he would be leaving his post.
“I have made the decision to resign my position,” he says in the memo. “While my time here will come to an end, I will never walk away from my advocacy for and support of the NYPD, and I will always be an advocate for the people of New York City.”
“Since I joined you nearly a year and a half ago, we have faced tremendous tragedy, challenges and triumphs together. I have witnessed your compassion, heroism and selflessness on a daily basis,” Sewell wrote in the memo. “You have reaffirmed to me what people around the world have always known: You are an extraordinary collective of hard-working public servants who are dedicated to keeping this city safe, engaging our communities, and sharing what we know with our partners. for the benefit of the world.”
Sewell became the 45th Police Commissioner of the nation’s largest police force after serving as Chief of Detectives with the Nassau County Police Department, where she was based for 25 years.
Sewell, originally from Queens, is a 22-year veteran of Nassau County police. She spent her entire police career in the suburbs of this county before becoming the first outside leader of the NYPD in more than two decades.
Sewell started with the Nassau County Police Department as a patrol officer in 1997, then became a precinct commander, major case manager, a top hostage negotiator, and finally chief of detectives, where she oversaw a staff of approximately 350, about 1% the size of the unformed ranks of the NYPD.
Sewell beat out several candidates for the commissioner job, including former high-ranking Seattle police officer Carmen Best.
Sewell was only the third black person to lead the NYPD after Benjamin Ward and Lee Brown, who both served in the 1980s and 1990s.
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