Incoming New York mayor to appoint first woman to lead city's police department

[December 15, 2021]    (Reuters) - New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams will appoint a woman to serve as commissioner of the city's police department for the first time in its 176-year history, local media reported on Tuesday.

New York City police cars are pictured, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 1, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Adams, himself a former New York City police captain, will introduce Keechant Sewell at a news conference in Queens on Wednesday, New York's Daily News reported.

“Keechant Sewell is a proven crime fighter with the experience and emotional intelligence to deliver both the safety New Yorkers need and the justice they deserve,” Adams said in a statement published by the newspaper.

The New York Times reported that Sewell is a 23-year veteran of the police department in Nassau County, New York, where she is chief of detectives. She would be New York City's third Black police commissioner.

The current commissioner, Dermot Shea, was appointed in 2019 by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“We welcome Chief Sewell to the second-toughest policing job in America,” Patrick Lynch, president of the city's major police union, said in a written statement. “The toughest, of course, is being an NYPD cop on the street.”

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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