NYPD interim commissioner Tom Donlon is expected to step down, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. A former FBI special agent, Donlon took on the job after the previous commissioner, Edward Caban, resigned.
Caban, the NYPD’s first Latino commissioner, left his position on September 12th after federal authorities seized his phone and raided his home. He is alleged to have run a racketeering scheme with his twin brother James, where they would have extorted nightclubs and bars for favorable treatment by the NYPD. Donlon took over on September 13th, only to also be raided by the FBI himself a little over a week into the job. Donlon maintains that the materials seized by investigators “came into [his] possession 20 years ago and are unrelated to [his] work” with the police. According to the Daily News, the city Department of Investigation background check on Donlon, a necessary step for his appointment as Commissioner, needed to be delayed due to the raid on his home.
A native New Yorker, Donlon’s career at the Bureau kept him in the city long before he joined the NYPD. He was the Special Agent in charge of the FBI’s New York Counter-Terrorism Division, and also ran the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force. As part of the JTTF, he was assigned to investigate the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Sources told Politico and the Daily News earlier today that Donlon and his closest advisors were packing up their belongings in anticipation of his departure, which could be made official as soon as tomorrow. With Donlon’s departure, City Hall now has 10 vacancies due to resignations or firings over the past month. It is not yet confirmed who will succeed him, although two names have emerged in recent reports. First is Ben Tucker, a career police officer and administrator who joined the force in 1969 and retired as First Deputy New York City Police Commissioner in 2021. Another perhaps more likely candidate to succeed Donlon is Jessica Tisch, the current Sanitation Department Commissioner. Tisch’s current position belies her prior experience in the NYPD, where she began her career in 2008, holding several civilian positions before being appointed as the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for information technology under Bill de Blasio in 2014.
Tisch’s abrupt departure would, however, create a vacancy in her current post, leaving City Hall with still another empty seat in a top position. As of this writing, there are no indications as to who might succeed her.
