NEW YORK (Ardunews) – The first female police commissioner in New York City’s history, Keechant Sewell, was taken oath on January 1, the first woman since the founding of the New York Police Department 176 years ago. There is a Commissioner of Police.
Commissioner Keechant is the 45th Commissioner of Police in the Southern New York Police Department to be appointed by Mayor Eric Adams. Eric Adams is the second black mayor in New York history.
“It is a great honor for me to serve as the Commissioner of Police,” said Commissioner Keechant Sewell in a statement after taking office.
She chose Edward Caban, a former commanding officer of the Harlem district, to be her second in command.
Keechant Sewell was selected by New York’s new mayor Eric Adams, who was also sworn into office on Saturday in the city’s Times Square.
Placing one hand on a family Bible, he held a picture of his mother Dorothy, who died in 2020, in the other, as Associate Justice Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix of the state Supreme Court’s appellate division swore him in.
A former police captain himself, Adams, 61, spoke out against crime, policing, and racial injustice on the campaign trail. He had also promised to choose a female police commissioner for his administration.
He’s the city’s second Black mayor, after David Dinkins who served from 1990 to 1993, and the 110th mayor of New York City.
Both Sewell and Adams will have to grapple with an uptick of gun and violent crime.
“We want to do gun interdiction, we want to do anti-gun units, we want to do all sorts of things we can use to stop the violence in the city,” Sewell told NBC New York after her new role was announced last month.
New York City is also grappling with an influx of new Covid-19 omicron infections. Adams has said he is considering an extension of the city’s strict vaccine mandate to public schools and is committed to keeping schools open and avoiding any further shutdowns in the city of 8.8 million.
An unconventional politician, Adams has authored a book on the benefits of veganism, which said it helped him with diabetes. He has also shown off his favorite smoothie recipe on social media.
He has also been known to frequent some of the city’s nightclubs, saying during an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show that, “This is a city of nightlife. I must test the product. I have to be out.”
In nutshell, Keechant Sewell is one of the inspirations for other women. In fact, through getting such honor she has broadened the scope of self-seeking ways to have partaken in the future.