The resignation of Commissioner Edward A. Caban on Thursday plunged the New York Police Department into uncertainty and turmoil, as he became the second top leader to leave in the span of 18 months.
Mayor Eric Adams, himself a former police captain, now must find a law enforcer to preside over a department that he has seeded at its highest levels with friends who have been ensnared in disciplinary matters and ethical questions.
The new police commissioner would be joining an administration that has been rocked by at least four federal criminal investigations, including one that forced the resignation of Mr. Caban. And the new leader’s time could be short: Mr. Adams is facing what could be a difficult re-election campaign next year.
On Thursday, Mr. Adams named Thomas Donlon, a Bronx native and former director of the New York State homeland security office, as interim head of the department. It was unclear how long his tenure would last, but many city leaders and former police officers welcomed the change.
They said his arrival might end an era of parochialism within the nation’s largest police department, which has been dominated by Brooklyn, the borough where Mr. Adams was a police captain, and where many of the top commanders he elevated also worked.
“The Brooklyn party is over,” said Kevin O’Connor, a former assistant commissioner in the department who retired in January 2023 and has bemoaned what he sees as a degradation of professionalism.
Mr. Donlon “has got to get the right people in place,” Mr. O’Connor said. “He can’t keep this going. The show is over.”
Some of the department’s challenges are the workaday problems of an enormous municipal agency: While its budget allows for 35,000 officers, for the past two years it has had only about 33,500, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office. The Police Benevolent Association attributes the staffing shortages to long hours and mandatory overtime.
Other crises are new. Under Mr. Adams, who has made hard-nosed law enforcement an integral part of his political appeal, the department has been rife with intrigue, public aggression and now concern over possible corruption in an institution that touches the lives of thousands of New Yorkers each day.
In the past several months, city officials, civil rights activists, and many retired police chiefs and officers still inside the agency have watched with alarm as top leaders in the department have gone after reporters and politicians, insulting them on social media, and throwing journalists out of headquarters.
At the same time, civilian complaints against the department have kept rising, while the perception that department leaders have not been taking discipline seriously enough has grown. Last month, Mr. Caban dismissed disciplinary charges against Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of department, who had interfered with the arrest of a retired officer who had chased three boys while armed.
All this, on top of a federal investigation, has overshadowed successes like drops in the number of homicides and shootings and the removal of 19,000 illegal weapons from the streets.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan is conducting three of the four federal inquiries involving the Adams administration, which on Sept. 4 led to the seizure of phones from several of his top officials. The one that appears to have been going on the longest involves Mr. Adams himself, and whether he and his campaign conspired to receive illegal contributions from a foreign country.
Federal agents took phones from Mr. Caban and several other officers, though the scope of the inquiry is unclear. It has focused at least in part on the commissioner’s twin brother, James Caban, a former officer fired from the department in 2001, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller and a candidate for mayor, wished Mr. Donlon well. “But unless this is accompanied by a series of real management reforms and public integrity safeguards — at N.Y.P.D. and at City Hall — one personnel change alone will not solve the ongoing concerns of New Yorkers,” he said in a post on X on Thursday.
Turnover in the top echelons of the Adams administration has been high, but the leadership changes at the Police Department have been particularly dramatic. In June 2023, former Commissioner Keechant Sewell abruptly left after enduring interference from officers in the mayor’s circle. Then, on Thursday, Mr. Caban, 57, who had been asked by the Adams administration to step aside, said he would quit because the news reports about the investigation involving him had become a distraction.
The last time there were three police commissioners in a single mayoral term appears to have been during the administration of Mayor James J. Walker, who resigned in 1932 as he was being investigated for corruption.
Nearly 100 years later, officers in New York are weathering another scandal that has butted up against the department.
“Although there may be a change in leadership, the cops and detectives will still be out there doing their jobs, protecting the citizens of New York City and all those who visit,” said Carlos Nieves, a top spokesman for the Police Department.
Fabien Levy, the spokesman for Mr. Adams, said Mr. Donlon’s priority will be to keep the city’s crime rate down.
“Every day is critical in building trust and confidence in the N.Y.P.D. and, under this administration, the department has worked with local communities to do just that every day for over two and a half years,” he said. “We expect all city employees to act ethically and in the public interest.”
On Friday, Mr. Caban’s offices on the 14th floor of police headquarters, which he had decorated with Yankees memorabilia and pictures of himself with former presidents had been cleaned out by his staff.
His portraits had been removed from walls around the building as well as the department’s website. His account on X had been removed. There was no traditional walkout ceremony.
Officials in the agency were hurrying to schedule a time for Mr. Donlon to be photographed so an official portrait could be hung as soon as possible.
By 5 p.m., Mr. Caban was officially out and Mr. Donlon was in. He was sworn in and met the department chiefs and top executives, such as Rebecca Weiner, the deputy commissioner of counterterrorism and intelligence and Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives.
Mr. Donlon’s extensive law enforcement and corporate security background includes decades in counterterrorism with the F.B.I., briefly heading New York State’s homeland security office in New York and security positions with Wall Street firms.
“New York City is the No. 1 terror site in world and he has good experience in that environment,” said William J. Bratton, a former police commissioner, who does not know Mr. Donlon personally. “The good thing about this guy is that he has collaborated extensively with the N.Y.P.D. Plus, he’s a native New Yorker.”
Questions swirled over how long Mr. Donlon — or anyone else — would actually be in place.
In December, a Quinnipiac University poll found that Mr. Adams had seen his approval rating plunge to 28 percent. Now, with Mr. Adams facing a growing list of challengers in the June Democratic primary, there’s a “good chance” that whoever becomes permanent commissioner may not stay long, said Jillian Snider, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former New York police officer.
“I’d be hesitant to take that role right now if I planned to stay in it for some time,” Ms. Snider said.
But even with the unpredictable nature of the federal investigation and the political race ahead, the job remains desirable, said Kenneth Corey, former chief of department under Ms. Sewell. The job pays $243,171 a year, according to online city records.
“You’ve reached the pinnacle of our profession when you can ascend to that role,” Mr. Corey said. “You’re leading the country’s largest police agency. I think anybody would jump at the chance.”
How much autonomy Mr. Donlon, or any new commissioner, will have is another critical question, Mr. Corey said.
He recalled how Ms. Sewell left frustrated over the way she was undermined by officials in the Adams administration, including Philip Banks III, the deputy of public safety, and Timothy Pearson, the senior adviser to the mayor. Both men were among top officials whose phones were seized.
Mr. O’Connor, the former assistant commissioner, said he does not expect Mr. Donlon to make big changes, especially with a federal investigation looming in the background and little idea of whose phone might be seized next.
The new commissioner will want to take a close look at his commanders before moving them around, Mr. O’Connor said.
“Everybody is going to be on their best behavior the next two to three weeks,” he said.
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