The very best-ranking uniformed officer within the NYPD, Chief of Division John Chell, has instructed members of his workplace that he’s retiring with beneath three months to go in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, in response to present and former NYPD sources.
The transfer marks the top of the 31-year profession of a typically polarizing determine who as Chief of Division oversaw a decline in crime this yr that mirrored nationwide developments whereas taking robust public stands in favor of aggressive policing techniques.
As a visual public face for the division beneath Adams, Chell made dozens of tv appearances whereas lashing on the market and on social media at elected officers, judges and journalists he noticed as “anti-police.” The town’s Division of Investigation would later characterize these posts as “unprofessional.”
Chell appeared in his NYPD uniform at a Donald Trump presidential marketing campaign rally at Madison Sq. Backyard and extra just lately traveled with a colleague to New Jersey for a non-public golf outing with the president.
Throughout the division, he’s been hailed by some for his intense work ethic whereas others have raised questions in regards to the dangerous penalties of his typically aggressive strategy to policing.
Most notably, as Chief of Patrol from late 2022 to late 2024, Chell oversaw a change in observe that directed officers to pursue fleeing autos extra typically.
“Folks pondering they’ll take off on us, these days are over,” Chell declared that July.
That shift led to an almost sixfold surge in police pursuits throughout the first six months of 2023 — and a pointy enhance in harmful and typically lethal collisions with vehicles and pedestrians.
The next yr noticed greater than a collision a day on common related to the pursuits, in response to NYPD knowledge. Total in 2023 and 2024, car pursuits resulted in 20 deaths and a whole bunch of accidents to suspects, cops, and harmless bystanders alike, the info reveals. Lawsuits stemming from these incidents are nonetheless winding their means by way of courts.
Chell and former NYPD official Kaz Daughtry, now Adams’ deputy mayor for public security, had launched and oversaw the unit accountable for most of the pursuits, the Neighborhood Response Crew (CRT).
The unit had a fame for forceful enforcement of high quality of life points comparable to pretend license plates and unlawful scooters throughout town, but in addition was discovered by town’s Division of Investigation to haven’t any written insurance policies, procedures or tips — and no required coaching for its members.
It operated within the shadows beneath Chell and Daughtry to such an extent that interim police commissioner Thomas Donlon asserted in a lawsuit he filed this yr towards Adams, Chell and different prime NYPD leaders alleging a conspiracy to advance their pursuits on the expense of the general public that he wasn’t briefed on its operations as soon as throughout his three-month tenure.
“The secrecy was deliberate,” Donlon alleged in his lawsuit. “CRT was used to harass, injure, and violate the rights of civilians, notably in communities of coloration, with no regard for constitutional safeguards.”
Adams and a former NYPD official responded to the lawsuit by suggesting Donlon’s psychological acuity had been deteriorating.
Chell was promoted to chief of division on Jan. 1 by Commissioner Jessica Tisch. He changed Jeffrey Maddrey, Chell’s pal and mentor who resigned final December amid allegations by a former underling that he had coerced sexual favors from her in change for additional time.
Maddrey has denied the allegations whereas acknowledging having had an “workplace fling.”
As the highest uniformed cop, Chell has overseen a 4% decline from January by way of September in most main crimes in comparison with the identical interval final yr. This features a 17% drop within the homicide price, mirroring a nationwide pattern, however there has additionally been a 19% enhance in reported rapes.
His work has earned him reward from Tisch and Adams, who in July thanked Chell and Daughtry “for being up at 2, 3, 4 a.m. within the morning responding to disaster after disaster, going after individuals who need to harm and hurt working-class individuals.”
In January, Tisch revised the NYPD’s strategy to car pursuits, limiting chases to cases the place suspects are believed to have dedicated critical crimes.
Chell didn’t reply to a message by way of X in search of remark, and the mayor’s workplace referred inquiries to the police division — which didn’t reply to a number of emails in search of remark.
The Every day Information, which first reported Chell’s pending retirement, mentioned he was submitting for a three-quarter incapacity pension primarily based on an ankle harm that occurred final yr. That will entitle him to 75% of his closing wage, yearly. Chell’s wage final yr as chief of patrol was simply over $276,000, in response to public data.
A Bumpy Trajectory
Two retired NYPD members who’ve labored intently with Chell instructed THE CITY few individuals love the job of policing greater than he does.
“You’re not going to get anyone who labored as arduous, who cared as a lot as he does, who labored the variety of hours as he did,” one among them mentioned. THE CITY granted them anonymity to allow them to talk freely.
However they mentioned Chell modified as he climbed the ranks, changing into unpredictable and harsh when underlings made errors — regardless of having his personal checkered historical past of misconduct.
They and plenty of different former NYPD members say Chell breezed previous two main incidents throughout his profession that might have been job-killers for different members of the pressure.
In 2008, Chell shot an unarmed 25-year-old within the again following a car pursuit in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Chell claimed his gun had gone off by accident when Ortanzso Bovell, who the cops believed was driving a stolen car, backed the automobile towards Chell and knocked him down.
However a civil jury in Brooklyn rejected that declare, calling the capturing intentional and awarding Bovell’s household $2.5 million in 2017, which was later lowered beneath a settlement with town to $1.5 million.
In 2012, in misconduct that wasn’t recognized publicly till it was reported by THE CITY earlier this yr, the Inner Income Service knowledgeable the NYPD that Chell was beneath investigation for federal tax fraud.
The allegations included that Chell had used the identification of different individuals in reporting earnings he made moonlighting as a basketball referee at Chelsea Piers from 1997 to 2003.
Chell pleaded responsible to departmental expenses the subsequent yr of willfully making an attempt to evade a federal tax, however he was docked simply 10 trip days, the personnel data present.
When THE CITY requested Adams in August why Chell was the precise particular person for chief of division regardless of the tax fraud incident, he answered, “A few years of excellent policing.”
Adams has additionally defended Chell towards criticism that he and Daughtry had been being too inflammatory in social media assaults in 2024 towards those that they deemed overly vital of division management.
The posts, together with one which claimed left-wing Queens Metropolis Council member Tiffany Caban “hates our metropolis,” prompted Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to request an investigation from town’s Division of Investigation.
In January, simply weeks after Chell was appointed chief of division, the company discovered that Chell and Daughtry’s posts had been “demeaning” and “unprofessional.”
Chell had argued that he was merely defending the members of the police division, and Adams, in April 2024, mentioned he took no subject with Chell talking up.
“I need the leaders of the administration to face up for cops who’re putting their lives on the road,” Adams mentioned on the time.
