New York’s Next Police Boss, a Queens Native, Comes ‘Full Circle’

Keechant Sewell, chief of detectives in Nassau County, will become the city’s 45th police commissioner after she impressed Eric Adams with “emotional intelligence.”

It was only an exercise, but the scenario was painfully familiar: A white police officer had just killed an unarmed Black man, and now the candidates to become New York City’s next police commissioner needed to show how they would address the media.

Some went directly into the technical details of what had occurred, Mayor-elect Eric Adams said. But one candidate began by acknowledging the loss of the victim’s life.

“That made me sit up because she understood that there was a tragedy because a life was lost,” Mr. Adams said. “That’s what we have to understand.”