NYPD commissioner resigns amid federal probe

NEW YORK — NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigned Thursday, marking the first staff departure into Mayor Eric Adams' administration since several federal raids last week.

In an email to the police force obtained by POLITICO, Caban cited the probe ensnaring his deputies and brother as a “distraction for our department.”

And in an address to New Yorkers, the mayor said he had accepted Caban’s resignation and wished him well.

“Commissioner Caban dedicated his life to making our city safer,” Adams said, delivering remote remarks from the mayoral residence where he is quarantining with Covid.

Tom Donlon, formerly New York’s director of homeland security and a Bronx native, will become the NYPD’s interim commissioner, Adams announced.

He will be the third person to lead the nation’s largest police department since Adams took office in 2022 — further calling into question the mayor’s approach to what has been his signature issue since the 2021 campaign. Adams retired as an NYPD captain in 2006.

Caban stepped down one week after federal investigators seized his phone and requested the phone of his twin brother, his chief of staff and other high-ranking police officials as part of a sprawling corruption probe into Adams’ inner circle that began with raids on other advisers last fall

The mayor in his remarks Thursday repeated, “I was as surprised as you to learn of these inquiries.”

Donlon’s first public statement as the incoming commissioner made no reference to the ongoing federal probe.

“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,” he said.

Caban bid farewell to his fellow officers with an email calling his service the greatest honor of his career.

“My complete focus has always been on the NYPD — the department and people I love and have dedicated over 30 years of service to,” he 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.”

His attorneys, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski, shared the same statement publicly.

“We have been informed by the government that he is not a target of any investigation being conducted by the Southern District of New York, and he expects to cooperate fully with the government,” they said.

Caban had been expected to leave his post, POLITICO first reported , amid mounting pressure after the feds escalated their influence-peddling probe into the highest echelon of the Adams administration.

The top cop is the first to step down after agents searched the homes of at least five of the mayor’s closest friends and top appointees. The homes of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Schools Chancellor David Banks, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and a third Banks brother, Terence Banks, were raided last week. No one has yet been accused of wrongdoing.

The probe ensnaring police officials involves a federal inquiry into a business Caban’s twin brother James, a former police officer, ran providing security and protection for nightclubs and bars — and whether that operation benefited from his ties to the police commissioner, according to several published reports.

At 14 months, Edward Caban’s tenure at the helm of the police department has been even shorter than that of his predecessor, Keechant Sewell, who resigned unexpectedly after 18 months on the job.

Caban was a no-show at Wednesday’s Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in Lower Manhattan.

Adams had declined to express confidence in his police commissioner on Tuesday while also declaring that “rumors are always out there,” but any insinuation of Caban’s resignation “did not come from my blessing.”

When he was asked to guarantee Caban’s continued employment, though, the mayor stopped short.

“I don’t think anything in life is guaranteed,” he said during his weekly City Hall press briefing Tuesday.

Adams and Caban frequently invoked falling crime rates.

The number of police officers held accountable for their misconduct also fell sharply under Caban — while complaints against cops skyrocketed by more than 50 percent.

As commissioner, Caban set an antagonistic tone toward the press, allowing his officers to attack reporters publicly and fostering a culture so averse to transparency that even the New York Post editorial board declared his press office, “increasingly authoritarian.”

His top deputies have been known for berating reporters, using social media and cursing at a Post reporter.

In 2023, Caban visited Qatar twice — first on the dime of the country’s ministry of the interior and then later thanks to the generosity of the embassy of the state, which wanted him to observe and collaborate on security practices.

He also made tours to Sydney, Australia, for the annual Pearls of Policing Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, for a conference on combating anti-semitism, and the Dominican Republic, where he met with national police to agree to protect New York City polling stations for Dominicans living in the states.

Caban was the NYPD's first Latino commissioner and comes from a family of police officers.

New York City Council Member Diana Ayala, who like Caban is Puerto Rican, told POLITICO this week that the Adams administration was “making him a scapegoat,” when other top administration figures were also caught up in investigations.

James Caban's attorney, Sean Heckner, said in a statement, “Mr. Caban unequivocally denies any wrongdoing. His work — as a consultant and acting as a liaison between the Department and a private company — is perfectly legal, especially given his previous career as a NYPD officer.”

Sally Goldenberg, Michael Gartland and Jeff Coltin contributed to this report.