Police Commissioner Resigns as Investigations Batter Adams’s Circle

Edward A. Caban, the New York City police commissioner, resigned on Thursday at the request of City Hall, which had asked him to step aside after federal agents seized his phone last week as part of a criminal investigation.

In an email to members of the Police Department, Commissioner Caban, 57, said that the news reports about the investigations had “created a distraction for the department.”

“The N.Y.P.D. 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,” he wrote in a memo that went out to the department late Thursday morning.

The announcement of his departure, which will be effective at the end of Friday, came little more than a year after Mayor Eric Adams had appointed him in July 2023. It abruptly ended Commissioner Caban’s career at the department and underscored the chaos swirling around the mayor’s administration.

City Hall has been buffeted by four federal investigations, which have resulted in searches and seizures targeting high-ranking officials. But an inquiry involving the city’s top law enforcement official is rare, and it cast doubt on Commissioner Caban’s ability to supervise the department and make disciplinary decisions about his own force of 36,000 officers.

The administration had sought the resignation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Mayor Adams, who addressed New Yorkers virtually on Thursday but did not take questions, announced an interim replacement: Thomas G. Donlon, a veteran F.B.I. counterterrorism official.

“Earlier this week, I spoke to you about the ongoing investigations that have come to light,” Mr. Adams said. “I was as surprised as you to learn of these inquiries, and I take them extremely seriously.”

Mr. Adams said that he had accepted the resignation of the commissioner, who had “concluded that this is the best decision at this time.”

“I respect his decision,” the mayor said. “And I wish him well.”

In a statement, Mr. Donlon thanked Commissioner Caban for his service and said he was “honored and humbled” to be his interim replacement. He vowed to “uphold the highest standards of integrity and transparency.”

Commissioner Caban’s lawyers, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski of the firm Cooley LLP, said in a statement that federal prosecutors had told them that he was not a target of the investigation, and that he intended to fully cooperate with the government. The two lawyers are former chiefs of the corruption unit at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District.

Commissioner Caban, in his email to the department, said that his “complete focus has always been on the N.Y.P.D. — the department and people I love and have dedicated over 30 years of service to.”

Before Thursday, he had not publicly addressed the investigation, but had told executives around the department that he had no intention of leaving, according to several people at the agency. In the days before the resignation, several fraternal organizations, such as those who represent police officers who are South Asian and Indo-Caribbean, had sent out messages of support.

The commissioner had been at Police Headquarters as recently as Monday, when he attended an annual security briefing with Jewish leaders about the High Holy Days. But by late Wednesday, it had become clear that his future at the department was uncertain at best, with Mr. Adams declining to say in interviews with reporters that Commissioner Caban would stay on the job.

It was the second time in 15 months that a police commissioner appointed by Mr. Adams had quit, following Keechant Sewell’s resignation in June last year over being undermined by the mayor and his top aides.

During Commissioner Caban’s tenure, police officials had tried to keep the focus on recent drops in the crime rate. In recent months, they have hailed the statistics at press briefings, attacked reporters who wrote critical pieces about department leaders and gone on conservative news stations like Newsmax to extol the declines. The department used slickly produced videos to portray its officers as heroes and to celebrate its successes in major cases and in taking guns off the street.

But the department’s successes have been overshadowed in recent months by the disarray in the Adams administration, Commissioner Caban’s role in at least one of the federal inquiries and public fights that the department’s top leaders have picked with reporters and critical city officials.

On Thursday, several city officials said they hoped that the resignation would bring a sense of order to the department and the administration.

“What I do look forward to after the week we’ve all had is the cessation of chaos,” said the City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams.

Jumaane D. Williams, the city’s public advocate and a frequent critic of Mr. Adams, said he hoped this was the first step in “restoring confidence.”

“This resignation is a correct decision, from an array of options at a moment I wish we weren’t in — one when New Yorkers have little trust in the administration, and little information from the mayor to help restore it,” he said in a statement.

Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, thanked Commissioner Caban for “always listening” to the union’s concerns. The department’s next leader will have to contend with officers stressed by understaffing, physical assaults and hostility from “anti-police activists,” he said in a statement.

“No matter who is leading the N.Y.P.D., this remains a uniquely challenging period for police officers on the streets,” Mr. Hendry said.

Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens and a progressive Democrat who is considering a run for mayor, said in a statement that the resignation was necessary amid the spate of investigations. But she questioned why “one of the top-ranking Latinos seems to be the only one getting the pressure to remove himself from a seat of power.”

Federal agents have also seized phones from the first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright; her partner, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks; the deputy mayor for public safety, Philip Banks III; and a senior adviser to the mayor, Timothy Pearson.

None of the officials involved in the investigations have been charged with a crime, but the seizures upended the administration and raised questions about the mayor’s ability to run New York.

Of the four investigations, Manhattan federal prosecutors are spearheading three. One is examining whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the government of Turkey to collect illegal foreign donations in exchange for approving a new consulate in Manhattan, despite safety concerns. Another is focused on senior City Hall officials, and the third includes Commissioner Caban, his brother and other police officials.

The Internal Revenue Service is involved in that investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter. The inquiry is examining a nightclub security business owned by the commissioner’s twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who was fired from the department in 2001. James Caban also had his phone seized last week, according to one of the people.

The mayor, a retired police captain, served on the force with the Commissioner Caban’s father and was close to him. Mr. Adams ignored the department’s ranks of chiefs to promote his associate’s son to become deputy commissioner in 2022 under Commissioner Sewell, the first woman to hold the job.

Commissioner Caban was known as a calm, affable leader who touted his Puerto Rican heritage and often ceded the spotlight to more swaggering officials, like John Chell, the chief of patrol, and Kaz Daughtry, the deputy commissioner of operations.

He was also scrutinized for his handling of discipline in the department, specifically for stopping the disciplinary cases of 54 officers from going to trial, more than any other commissioner, according to an analysis of data from the oversight board by ProPublica that was published by The New York Times in June. In response, he said he has handled far more cases than past department leaders.

Last month, he dismissed disciplinary charges against Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of department, who had interfered with the arrest of a retired officer who had chased three boys while armed.

In his email, Commissioner Caban said he had “complete faith in the leaders across the N.Y.P.D.”

Jeffery C. Mays, Dana Rubinstein and Emma Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.