Retired NYPD chief’s egregious legacy

Christian Covington is an attorney in Brooklyn 

Much was written last summer about the 50th anniversary of the release of “Jaws,” about the lasting effects of the film’s thrills and chills, and about the subsequent effect of the film’s summer blockbuster promotion strategy on the movie business. 

Little mention has been made, however, of the fact that Steven Spielberg is an artist, and as an artist, the story he tells is more than a battle against a ravenous shark. Rather, his film presents, and resolves, a moral dilemma rooted in an individual struggle that we all can understand. The film connects with us, because it amplifies and clarifies, writ large, the choices we all face at one time or another. 

The moral dilemma in the film arises when the mother of the boy killed by the shark slaps Chief Brody, thus marking the turning point of the story. The police chief’s silent acceptance of his failure to protect the boy signals both a recognition of his ultimate responsibility and of his need to redeem himself, a need satisfied by his ultimate vanquishing of the shark. This process of redemption is made meaningful because it is a choice the chief willfully makes; after all, he didn’t have to join the attempt to track down and kill the shark. 

Art has its parallels in real life, and this process of neglect, regret and redemption came to my mind when earlier this month I read that NYPD Chief John Chell had announced his intent to retire from the department. All of the published reports on Chell’s retirement noted his record of social media attacks on the NYPD’s perceived “enemies” and his involvement in incidents, before becoming chief, that resulted in discipline or lawsuit payouts. Not enough was made in these reports, however, about Chell’s most egregious failure: his directive that officers pursue fleeing vehicles more often. 

It was bad enough that the directive was implemented for dubious reasons, from a false sense of machismo or bravado: “The days of driving around this city lawless, doing what you’re thinking you’re going to do, it’s over,” Chell stated in July 2023 when asked about the vehicle-pursuit policy. “People thinking they can take off on us? Those days are over,” he helpfully expounded. 

More than this, from a public safety standpoint such a directive was nonsensical. As a former NYPD official noted: “I don’t want the cops racing down my block to go get somebody that has a suspended registration.... I don’t want to risk my family getting killed by either that guy fleeing or [by] the cops.” The chief’s vehicle-pursuit policy was made even more inexplicable by the fact that the NYPD can make use of drones, helicopters and radio communications to track vehicles, a capability of which the department is never shy of bragging about. 

The most damning statistic against Chell’s foolhardy pursuit policy, however, was the cost in human lives: the NYPD went from 60 pursuits in 2019, to more than 1,200 in 2024, resulting in an average of more than one vehicle crash per day, leading to “20 deaths and hundreds of injuries to suspects, cops and innocent bystanders alike,” and numerous lawsuits it will take years to resolve. 

Another damning statistic is that, soon after becoming NYPD commissioner last November, Jessica Tisch instituted a new vehicle-pursuit policy, prohibiting officers from chasing vehicles unless the drivers have committed the “most serious and violent crimes.” The new policy led to a 66 percent reduction in vehicle pursuits, even before it officially came into effect, and pursuits have continued to decline — with no apparent diminution in the NYPD’s crime fighting ability. 

In the cycle of neglect, regret and recrimination, it is clear that Chell achieved the first part — with the latter two not being as obvious, at least not to the public eye. Nevertheless, Chell will leave One Police Plaza with the traditional walkout and a tax-free disability pension of 75 percent of his $246,000 salary — and, presumably, with a smile on his face. There will be many others, including taxpayers, who will not be as fortunate.