After Latest Nypd Scandal, Adams Signals 2025 Campaign Messaging On Public Safety

NEW YORK — As he faces reelection next year with a record of scandal atop the NYPD, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is leaning into his 2021 campaign pledge to reduce crime and effectively manage the nation’s largest police department.

On Tuesday, Adams spoke at his first public press briefing since the resignation of former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, who is accused of sexually assaulting a subordinate in exchange for granting her a copious helping of overtime. While Maddrey has denied wrongdoing, his abrupt exit has capped three years of chaotic rule at the nation’s largest police department — a period of tumult sparked by some of Adams’ closest friends and confidantes who have since resigned or been pushed out amid a cloud of misconduct.

On Tuesday, Adams brushed off any suggestion he mismanaged the police department, pointing to major crime numbers that have fallen on his watch.

“The campaign I talked about was bringing down crime, making our city safer,” Adams said. “We did that. That box is checked.”

While the mayor has called the allegations against Maddrey troubling, he did not express any regret for tapping him as the top uniformed police officer at the department, even as a past disciplinary case against Maddrey was well known before his promotion.

“His policing practices and what he has done as a police officer — the knowns — I have been extremely, extremely proud of those knowns … you can't predict unknowns,” Adams said.

Maddrey is just the latest Adams ally who wielded power over the NYPD to head for the exit. Adams’ second police commissioner, Edward Caban, his former deputy mayor for public safety, Philip Banks III, and his former senior adviser for public safety, Timothy Pearson, were all forced out of the administration amid various law enforcement probes.

During an interview with a former NYPD colleague a day earlier, Adams suggested accusations against Maddrey and the turnover at the top of the police department were similar to other periods of unrest at the NYPD.

“There’s always been scandals,” Adams said during a sit-down interview with a former NYPD deputy inspector, referencing the murder of Eric Garner and a 1990s-era corruption scandal known as the Dirty 30. “What the fuck are we talking about?”

The mayor’s first commissioner, Keechant Sewell, resigned after her authority over the department was consistently undermined by other prominent members of the administration. And an interim police commissioner brought on this fall to calm concerns at the department was on the job for just two months before Adams named Jessica Tisch as his new commissioner.

In Monday’s interview, Adams seemed to acknowledge that the turmoil at the most important department in his administration could not continue. He said he expects that an overtime review and personnel house cleaning Tisch is undertaking to right the ship.

“I said to my team over there, listen, I cannot run the city and worry about these … little conflicts that [were] happening,” Adams said. “I need some real discipline over there, and we want to get refocused and move the department to the next level.”