NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — First Deputy Commissioner Edward Caban, 55, stepped into his role as interim NYPD commissioner on Saturday after Keechant Sewell abruptly announced she was stepping down as police commissioner last month.
“Commissioner Caban is a consummate professional with over three decades of service in the NYPD,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “I know the hard-working men and women of our city’s police department have a strong leader in place until a more formal announcement is made in the coming weeks.”
Adams said he would serve as acting commissioner until the administration is able to find a permanent replacement.
During Caban's 30-year career, he has been accused of 12 misconduct allegations across three complaints — two of which the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated.
In 2006, Caban wrongfully arrested a 60-year-old Black man whose name was redacted from CCRB records.
Caban stopped and questioned the man because he “acted suspicious in [a] drug prone location,” he wrote in his patrol memo book. After viewing the man’s ID, Caban allegedly told him he was being arrested “for not living in the neighborhood,” according to CCRB’s report.
The cops slapped the man with a refusal to comply with orders to disperse charge that was dismissed a few months later.
The CCRB ruled the other complaints filed for the incident — that Caban threatened the victim with a reference to a case in which police sodomized a man with a broom and that the then-sergeant hit him while he was handcuffed — were unfounded.
The other substantiated complaint stemmed from a 1997 incident in which Caban refused to provide the names of two officers who threatened to “f*** up” and arrest an unidentified woman.
Caban was exonerated of one of the other ten claims. The CCRB ruled the remaining nine were either unfounded or could not be investigated because the complainant could not be reached.
Former Commissioner Sewell abruptly announced her resignation in a June 10 memo and officially stepped down on Friday.
“I want to thank Commissioner Sewell for her year and a half of service to the greatest city in the world. Commissioner Sewell not only led the NYPD with distinction and honor every day, but she inspired millions of young girls and boys in her role,” said Adams in his announcement for Caban’s appointment. “All New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude, and we wish her the best as she embarks on the next chapter.”
Sewell did not explain her reasons for stepping down, but investigative news outlet the City reported she resigned after refusing a personal request from Adams to refrain from disciplining Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, the highest-ranking uniformed NYPD officer.
The CCRB substantiated a complaint against Maddrey for intervening in the arrest of a former officer who allegedly pointed a gun at children. Sewell docked 10 vacation days from the chief for the incident despite pressure from Adams to let him off the hook, according to the anonymous source cited by the City.
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