The City Politic: Errol Louis

Mayor Micromanager: It's clearer than ever that Eric Adams is running New York on his own.

- 

KEECHANT SEWELL'S ABRUPT resignation as police commissioner on June 12, less than 18 months into her tenure as the first woman in the role, caught many people off guard including, apparently, Mayor Eric Adams. Here was a historic figure respected by the rank and file, tasked with leading one of the most important departments in the city at a time when crime has become a major quality-of-life issue. But the consensus among current and former NYPD brass is that Sewell was in an impossible position from day one with a range of significant personnel and policy decisions blocked, seized, or second-guessed by City Hall.

"I was actually surprised she stayed on this long," Michael Alcazar, a retired detective and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said to Gothamist. "It's been clear for a while that Commissioner Sewell was being boxed in," City Councilmember Diana Ayala told the New York Times. "You have a woman in leadership, and you are not allowing her to lead."

Adams has refused to say why Sewell quit but lavished praise on her after the fact. "Not only did I believe she was a great professional, but I just liked her as a person," he told reporters. That public display of affection was not immediately returned by Sewell, whose farewell note to the department failed to mention the mayor.