*Keechant Sewell has made history as the first female police commissioner in the NYPD’s 176-year history.
As reported by PEOPLE, Sewell took her oath as the department’s 45th police commissioner on Saturday. She tweeted a video of the swearing-in ceremony, noting that “This oath reflects my deep commitment to our great city – and the individuals who are ranked as New York’s Finest I’m privileged to be here and ready to work!”
The Queens native previously worked in the Nassau Police Department for 23 years and last year she was promoted to chief of detectives, per the report.
Sewell was appointed by New York City’s new mayor Eric Adams, the city’s second Black mayor. Both are now challenged with tackling an increase in violent gun crime in the city.
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I’m truly honored to be the 45th New York City Police Commissioner. This oath reflects my deep commitment to our great city – and the individuals who are ranked as New York’s Finest. I’m privileged to be here and ready to work! pic.twitter.com/69ns4zOYfD
— Commissioner Sewell (@NYPDPC) January 1, 2022
“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.
“The biggest challenge is early expectations that are unrealistic,” said Maria Haberfeld, a police science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. “It will take a host of variables to deal effectively with what was created by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“There will be a lot of pressure for this to disappear as quickly as possible,” Haberfeld said of the city’s recent violent surge.
“[And] when there’s a lot of pressure for change, mistakes are made,” she warned.
“I think Adams is going to face a similar challenge that most mayors are facing right now, which is high levels of gun violence during a time when resources are stretched thin by the pandemic and people are more polarized than ever,” said Thomas Abt, a senior fellow at the independent think tank Council on Criminal Justice and current chair of the organization’s Violent Crime Working Group, New York Post reports. “New York is struggling with those issues, just like other cities in the country.”
Adams and Sewell intend to crack down on gun violence by bringing back the NYPD’s controversial anti-crime unit, known for targeting mostly Black and brown folks.
“If violence is a cancer, then aggressive policing is chemotherapy,” Abt said. “Chemotherapy is an important tool in fighting cancer, but it’s also harmful to the patient. And so what we do is use chemotherapy, but use it as little as possible. Use it as a last resort.”
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