New York police commissioner resigns after his phone is seized in federal investigation – Boston Herald

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned Thursday, a week after it emerged that his phone was confiscated as part of a federal investigation that implicated several members of Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle.

According to an email to the police department obtained by The Associated Press, Caban said he made the decision to resign after “news coverage of recent events” “distracted our department.”

“I don’t want my attention to be focused on anything other than our important work and the safety of the men and women of the New York Police Department,” he added.

At a news conference Thursday, Adams said he had named Tom Donlon, a retired FBI official, as interim police commissioner. Donlon previously served as head of the FBI’s National Threat Center and once headed the Office of Homeland Security in New York before starting his own security firm in 2020.

“I thank Commissioner Donlon for intervening at this critical time,” Adams said.

Caban was one of several high-ranking city officials whose electronic devices were seized last week by federal investigators, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

The scope of the investigation, which is being led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, remains unclear. It was not immediately clear whether federal authorities were seeking information related to one investigation or several.

Federal authorities are also investigating Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, who runs a security company at the nightclub, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Edward Caban, 57, has been head of the nation’s largest police department for about 15 months. A Puerto Rican, he was the first Latino to lead the 179-year-old NYPD.

Other officials whose devices were recently confiscated include First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Philip Banks, deputy mayor for public safety; his brother David Banks, chancellor of city schools; and Timothy Pearson, a mayoral aide and former senior New York Police Department official.

The searches added to a flurry of investigative activity surrounding Adams’ administration and campaign. Adams, a first-term Democrat, was subpoenaed in July, eight months after federal agents seized his cellphones and iPad as he left an event in Manhattan. Federal authorities have not publicly charged him or any official with any wrongdoing, and Adams has denied any wrongdoing.

The investigation that led to the seizure of Cabana’s devices is not believed to be related to the investigation that led federal investigators to seize Adams’ devices last November, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

On Tuesday, Adams acknowledged that the sudden increase in federal scrutiny “has raised a lot of questions and concerns.”

Caban joined the department as a patrol officer in 1991 in the Bronx, where he grew up. His father, retired detective Juan Caban, served with Adams, a former police captain, when both were in the city’s transit police. Three of Caban’s brothers were also police officers.

Caban has served in precincts across the city, rising to sergeant, lieutenant, captain, executive officer, commanding officer, deputy inspector and inspector. He was the department’s first deputy commissioner, second in command, before being named commissioner last year.

Caban replaced Keechant Sewell, the first woman to hold the position. She resigned after an 18-month tenure that was clouded by speculation that she didn’t really have control over the department after Adams named former NYPD chief Philip Banks deputy mayor for public safety. She is now senior vice president of safety and hospitality for the New York Mets.

“There’s nothing better in the world than public service,” Caban said in an interview at his alma mater, St. John’s University, after his nomination. “My father taught me that every day on the job is an opportunity to change lives, and at the NYPD, we can do that every day.”

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 1, the department recorded 243 murders, down from 279 during the same period last year. Burglaries, thefts and carjackings also declined. During the same time period, there was a 17.8% increase in reported hate crimes, an 11.1% increase in rapes and smaller increases in some other categories.

Cabana was also criticized for his handling of officer discipline.

In April, he declined to take any internal disciplinary action against two people involved in the 2019 fatal shooting of a black man, Kawasaki Trawick, in his Bronx apartment. Caban said the officers “acted within the law” and that the city’s police watchdog agency waited too long to file administrative charges.

In August, Caban upheld a department administrative judge’s recommendation to drop a disciplinary case against department Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, who was accused of issuing an order to quash the November 2021 arrest of a retired officer who previously worked for him. Trial Court Judge Rosemarie Maldonado found the oversight agency lacked jurisdiction to review the case.

Originally published: September 12, 2024 at 12:01 PM