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Nassau Detectives Chief Will Be First Woman to Lead NYPD

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Keechant Sewell, the granddaughter of an NYPD cop who rose through the ranks of Nassau County’s Police Department’s to become its Chief of Detectives, will be the first woman to lead the NYPD. 

Chief Sewell, Queens-bred and 49, will take over the nation’s largest police department at a critical juncture, as it confronts a wave of violent crime that, while having eased somewhat in recent months, has tested the department, the de Blasio administration and critics of both, including police unions and advocates. The agency has also been contending with compromised morale following widespread criticism of how it handled unrest and incidents during last year’s anti-police demonstrations, and efforts to slash its budget.

'Laser-Focused' on Violence

“We are at a pivotal moment in New York as our city faces the twin challenges of public safety and police accountability. They are not mutually exclusive,” she said following her official introduction Dec. 15 by Mayor-elect Eric Adams at the Queensbridge houses in Long Island City, where she grew up. 


A few of our stories and columns are now in front of the paywall. We at The Chief-Leader remain committed to independent reporting on labor and civil service. It's been our mission since 1897. You can have a hand in ensuring that our reporting remains relevant in the decades to come. Consider supporting The Chief, which you can do for as little as $2.25 a month.

She said she would seek to enlist residents in that joint test. Police, she suggested, need the community’s support and backing. “The NYPD has an important role to play, but we cannot do it alone. It is not just the Police Department. It is your police department,” she said. 

Chief Sewell said her administration would be “laser-focused” on violent crime “with an emphasis on guns," and alluded to the restoration of the NYPD’s plainclothes anti-crime unit, which Mr. Adams has said will be a key component of his administration’s policing strategy. “I will tell you anti-crime and plainclothes units work,” Chief Sewell said. But both she and the Mayor-elect added that the officers who make up those units must be responsive to residents’ concerns. 

“They have to work with the community,” she said. “You have to make sure you get the right people with the right temperament, with that emotional intelligence to serve the communities that we’re going to deploy them to.” 

Current Commissioner Dermot Shea dissolved the roughly 600-officer contingent in June 2020 following years of grievances directed at the unit for its aggressive approach to law enforcement. 

PBA, DEA: 'Work With Us'

The heads of two police unions saluted Chief Sewell’s impending appointment, and also bid good riddance to the current administration, with which they have long battled. 

“We welcome Chief Sewell to the second-toughest policing job in America. The toughest, of course, is being an NYPD cop on the street,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement. “New York City police officers have passed our breaking point. 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.”

Paul DiGiacomo, the head of Detectives' Endowment Association, said the NYPD was in critical need of leadership and welcomed Mr. Adams’s choice.

“Detectives and fellow cops need support more than ever—and deserve nothing less. That’s how we make NYC safe again. It’s no surprise to this union that the new Police Commissioner is Nassau County’s current Chief of Detectives, and we have no doubt Chief Sewell knows how hard our members work,” he said.

The Legal Aid Society, while critical from the other end of the spectrum to Mayor de Blasio’s approaches to policing, was more circumspect.

“The next Commissioner must demonstrate an understanding that many community problems do not warrant a law-enforcement response,” the organization’s statement said. It stressed the need to swiftly deal with police misconduct even as the department addresses gun violence, which it said in part calls for “community-based approaches” including those modeled on public-health strategies. 

'A Different Perspective'

While Mr. Adams, who retired as an NYPD Captain in 2006 following a 22-year career with the department, long ago suggested he would pick a woman of color as his first Police Commissioner, the appointment was among his most-anticipated. 

Chief Sewell started her policing career as a patrol officer in the Nassau County P.D.’s Fifth Precinct in 1997. She was subsequently promoted to Detective and Sergeant before being elevated to Precinct Commander. She also headed the department’s Major Case Bureau. She was promoted to Chief of Detectives in September 2020, where she is responsible for a 351-member division. She has trained at the FBI’s National Academy and taught at the NCPD police academy.

Ms. Sewell said she had “watched, admired and worked alongside” city police during her Nassau tenure. “It is an honor and a privilege to stand with them,” she said.  

She added she was “mindful of the historic nature” of her appointment. “I bring a different perspective,” she said, “committed to make sure the department looks like the city it serves and making the decision, just as Mayor-elect Adams did, to elevate women and people of color to leadership positions.”

Adams: Sewell a 'Visionary'

Neither she nor Mr. Adams had any qualms about her elevation to one of the nation’s highest policing posts from a comparatively modest posting in which she supervised an investigative force that was just a fraction of the NYPD's 5,000-member Detective Bureau. 

“The skills that she has, everywhere she traveled to in the police department in Nassau, she improved, she started new units, she was able to show how to use her skills and continue to elevate,” Mr. Adams said. “I needed a visionary. I needed someone that was ready to transform our department, and that’s what I found.” 

Chief Sewell, referring to the NYPD’s reputation as “the best of the best,” said the department was “about to get even better.” 

But while she said she would support her cops, officers must also “have the backs of the public.” 

“I will hold our officers accountable, and I know you will do the same for me,” she said. “My shoes are laced up; I’m ready to get to work.”


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