Mayor-elect Adams considering scandal-scarred ex-cop for City Hall post as search for other key appointments narrows
A high-ranking former NYPD cop tied to a bribery scandal is among a narrowing group of candidates under consideration for top jobs in Eric Adams’ incoming administration.
A month away from his Jan. 1 inauguration, Adams confirmed Monday he is considering Phil Banks, a former chief of department at the NYPD, for deputy mayor of public safety.
Banks abruptly retired from the NYPD in 2014 after the feds named him as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a public-corruption scheme in which since-criminally convicted businessmen Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg bribed cops and other city officials to boost the pair’s status as power players.
But Adams waved off Banks’ ties to the crooked businessmen as overblown.
“Number one, this is an amazing country, and our rule of law is a person is innocent until proven guilty. He has not been accused or found guilty of any wrongdoing at all, and so I think it would be unfair if we made an insinuation that he is,” Adams told reporters in Brooklyn.
“He rose to the top of the largest police department, if not on the globe, and for us to have him sit on the bench because of an investigation that turned out no one stated he did anything illegal would be wrong to do while we’re dealing with a real crime crisis.”
Aside from Banks, Adams said he has narrowed down his search for a range of other top administration posts, including NYPD commissioner and schools chancellor, to a list of “two or three” candidates per job.
Adams said he won’t roll out his picks until he is back in the city from a trip to Ghana on Dec. 8.
“Soon as I return, you’re going to see back to back to back to back announcements. I’m going to spend these next few days looking over all of them again,” he said, adding that he’s “doing some Zooms with a few of them” while overseas.
Banks’ potential deputy mayor of public safety role was first reported by Politico last week.
The post hasn’t been operational since the 1990s, when then-Mayor David Dinkins tapped Milton Mollen for the job amid a crime spike.
Despite Banks’ history, Adams hinted he considers the ex-cop a natural fit for the long-dormant role.
“I served under him in the police department,” Adams said of Banks, “and I think New Yorkers should look for the best to deal with this crime issue.”
