Police Commissioner Edward Caban stepped down Thursday from his post leading the country’s largest police force — a week after his home was raided by federal law enforcement officials as part of a probe that targeted at least a half-dozen other members of the NYPD.
Caban, whose 426-day term was the shortest tenure for a police commissioner in more than three decades, was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as New York City’s first Hispanic police commissioner on July 17, 2023, following the resignation of Commissioner Keechant Sewell — who herself resigned after only 545 days as the city’s first Black woman to serve as top cop.
Just after noon Thursday, Adams announced that Tom Donlon, a former FBI official who now runs a global security firm, would be the interim police commissioner.
“A short time ago I accepted the resignation of the NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban,” the mayor said. “We concluded that this was the best decision at this time. I respect this decision and I wish him well.”
Caban’s resignation comes as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District in Manhattan is reportedly looking at the activities of Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who was fired from the NYPD for abuse of authority in 2001.
The New York Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that investigators are looking into whether James may have sought to profit from his family connection by selling “consulting” services to nightclubs that would protect them against enforcement by local precincts.
In an email to NYPD personnel sent Thursday, Caban wrote that he was resigning because of the “distraction” of the federal probe, which he referred to as “recent developments.”
“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,” the email read. “The NYPD deserves someone who can solely focus on protecting and serving New York City, which is why — for the good of this city and this department — I have made the difficult decision to resign as police commissioner.”
A host of top officials in Adams’ inner circle also had their homes raided or electronic devices confiscated by the FBI last week — including Schools Chancellor David Banks, his brother Philip Banks III, who serves as Adams’ deputy mayor for public safety, and a top mayoral advisor who also formerly worked at the NYPD, Tim Pearson.
The federal probes follow to previous rounds of search warrants served on close associates of Adams. Earlier this year, the mayor’s director of Asian Affairs, Winnie Greco, had her two homes in The Bronx raided by the FBI, and last November campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs and Turkish community liaison Rana Abbasova were the targets of searches.
Adams has responded to the barrage of federal scrutiny by maintaining that his administration follows the law. On Tuesday, he denied Caban was being pushed out by him or anyone else.
Asked repeatedly whether he maintained confidence in Caban’s ability to lead the department, Adams answered: “I have the utmost confidence in the New York City Police Department.”
Low Profile PC
Caban’s ability to lead the city’s more than 34,000 cops became more challenging as soon as the federal government made him a target of law enforcement action.
In addition to the optics alone, the investigation prompted questions about potential obstacles to full cooperation between the feds and NYPD on urgent matters such as anti-terrorism work.
Throughout his tenure, Caban has maintained a low profile, holding a limited number of press conferences. Meanwhile, he traveled internationally at least six times in 2023 alone.
Some of those trips raised eyebrows because they were funded by foreign governments, including Qatar.
Other members of the NYPD’s upper echelon — notably Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry and Chief of Patrol John Chell — have maintained a more visible presence when it comes to speaking on behalf of the department.
The outgoing commissioner also made a number of high-profile disciplinary decisions during his brief tenure, including meting out no discipline on two cops involved in the 2019 shooting death of Kawaski Trawick, and scrapping the disciplinary trial of Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey after an 11th hour recommendation by an administrative judge that he do so because the police watchdog bringing the case lacked jurisdiction.
The news outlet ProPublica recently documented Caban’s penchant for nixing disciplinary cases that are brought by the watchdog Civilian Complaint Review Board — either because he disagrees with their findings or because the NYPD says the department wasn’t left with enough time to rule on the matter ahead of a statute of limitation running out.
Rise Through the Ranks
Caban was appointed the head of the NYPD last year with a ceremony held outside the 46th Precinct in the South Bronx, where he first worked when he joined the department in 1991.
The crowd shouted “Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!” as the mayor introduced him, praising “his discipline, his attitude, the diversity of the people who constantly told me what he meant to him.”
“All I kept hearing was Edward Caban, Edward Caban, that he was the right person to be the first deputy commissioner, and to ascend to the position of being the police commissioner of the City of New York,” Adams said at the time.
“You watched the turnaround in this city, probably one of the greatest stories of a city coming back from the pandemic, to violence, to uncertainties, to job insecurity. You’re watching the recovery right before our eyes. He’s the right choice for right now.”
After joining the NYPD — following in the footsteps of his father Juan, a New York City Transit Police detective — Caban quickly ascended through the ranks, and was promoted to sergeant in 1994. It was his dad who pushed him to go for promotions, Caban said at his swearing-in.
“He told me, ‘Take the test, son. Promotions will earn you a seat at the table,’” he said at the time.
In 1999 he became a lieutenant and was promoted to captain in 2005. In 2022, became the NYPD’s first deputy commissioner where he oversaw officer development and other “strategic visions” of the department. “When you join the NYPD, you get a seat to the greatest show on earth,” he said in 2023. “And in many ways that’s true, but what you also get to see up close are remarkable men and women who put it all on the line, day in and day out.”
