NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban steps down amid Adams administration turmoil

After just over a year in the role, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban is out. The commissioner announced his resignation with an email to officers on Thursday. News of Caban’s resignation was first reported by the New York Post.

“My complete focus has always been on the NYPD – the department and people I love and have dedicated over 30 years of service to,” Caban wrote. “However, the news around recent developments has created a distraction for our department, and I am unwilling to let my attention be on anything other than our important work, or the safety of the men and women of the NYPD.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams appointed Thomas Donlon, the former director of the state’s Office of Homeland Security – and not a current member of the NYPD – to take over as interim commissioner. In a statement shared by City Hall, Donlon said he was honored to be named interim commissioner and thanked Caban for his service. “My goals are clear: continue the historic progress decreasing crime and removing illegal guns from our communities, uphold the highest standards of integrity and transparency, and support our dedicated officers who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe.”

The news comes a week after the homes of multiple members of the Adams administration were searched and many of their devices were seized by the FBI, including those of Caban and his twin brother James. NBC New York reported that federal investigators are looking into whether James Caban made money from his connection to his twin brother to influence police enforcement at nightclub establishments. No one who was raided last week has been accused of wrongdoing. Adams canceled his scheduled events Monday afternoon, shortly before Politico reported that Caban was expected to resign. The mayor later said he had tested positive for COVID-19 and would be isolating.

In a brief virtual address from Gracie Mansion Thursday afternoon, Adams accepted Caban’s resignation, saying he “respects his decision.” He offered no details about the investigation that led to Caban’s abrupt resignation. 

“I was as surprised as you to learn of these inquiries and I take them extremely seriously,” the mayor said. “Every member of my administration knows my expectations that we must follow the law.”

“The level of chaos of the Adams administration is astounding,” New York Working Families Party co-Directors Jasmine Gripper and Ana María Archila said in a statement. “Once again, Eric Adams is spending his day fighting scandals and investigations instead of using the levers of government to improve people’s lives. New Yorkers deserve better!”

Adams appointed Edward Caban in July of 2023, about a month after Adams’ previous police commissioner Keechant Sewell stepped down, reportedly due to issues with being micromanaged by the Adams administration. Caban, who had worked in the NYPD since 1991, was elevated from deputy commissioner to become the city’s first Latino police commissioner. He grew up in the Bronx. His father Juan was also in the NYPD.

As City & State reported in August last year, Caban’s twin brother James was also formerly an NYPD cop. James Caban was kicked out of the NYPD in 2001, and he went on to become a negligent landlord, for which he was sentenced to a month in jail.  

During his short tenure as commissioner, Caban presided over an NYPD that was markedly more aggressive in its messaging strategy, beefing up its communications department and allowing high-ranking officials to call out specific journalists, New York City Council members, prosecutors and judges on social media. In one incident, Chief of Patrol John Chell misidentified both a judge and an alleged perpetrator in a single X post from his official account, the AP reported. The strategy was brought to bear as the Adams administration clashed with the City Council on public safety legislation, with the NYPD publicly lobbying against a package of bills that eventually passed requiring more documentation of police stops.

The more aggressive messaging strategy on social media and in some TV interviews was often carried out by top brass including Chell, Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry and others, at times making his top deputies more the public faces of the NYPD than Caban himself. 

Under Caban, police were less frequently disciplined in misconduct cases, while complaints against them rose, Gothamist reported. ProPublica found that the police department threw out hundreds of substantiated misconduct cases without reviewing them. 

Caban also led the department through its response to the tense pro-Palestine protests that took over many college campuses in the city during the spring. In April, the NYPD arrested more than 100 people as they stormed Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus to quell the occupation of a campus building. Caban and other NYPD top brass pushed the narrative that those protests were organized by outside agitators, not students, a claim that students disputed.

In general, major crimes in New York City declined during Caban’s tenure, despite concerns fanned by conservatives about an influx of migrants to the city. It’s been a devastating week for the Adams administration, but the news hasn’t been all bad. The police commissioner’s resignation comes after an August with lower-than-usual gun violence numbers.