NYC GOP mayoral candidate Sliwa likely to select Latino career NYPD cop as new commissioner, blasts Adams candidates
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa says New York’s next police commissioner should be a career NYPD cop, preferably Latino.
He wouldn’t indicate who he is eyeing for the job but said he’s impressed with former Chief of Patrol Fausto Pichardo, who retired last year following a row with Mayor de Blasio.
Though Sliwa wouldn’t come out foursquare in favor of Pichardo, he called him a “cop’s cop.”
Sliwa told the Daily News he’s amazed his Democratic opponent, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, doesn’t appear to be looking at a Latino or Latina for the next police commissioner.
“They’re not even in consideration,” Sliwa said. “What? The largest group of minorities, soon to be majority in the department, and we can’t even consider a Latino or Latina?
“They are the present and future of the department.”
Hispanics compose 30% of NYPD officers, Blacks make up 15%, Asians are 10%, and whites are 45%, Civilian Complaint Review Board data shows.
Adams’ spokesman Evan Thies said Adams is in fact considering Latinos.
Adams, a former NYPD captain, has said he wants a woman to be the next top cop. Four NYPD chiefs, most prominent among them Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes, are believed to be under consideration.
But to Sliwa’s chagrin, Adams is said to also be considering an outsider — maybe former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, retired Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best or Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.
Sliwa did not comment on Adams’ consideration of Lynch. He said Outlaw would be a disaster, citing low officer morale in Philadelphia and a troubling crime rate.
Sliwa feels Best shouldn’t be considered because Seattle cops cleared out of a precinct during a George Floyd protest in 2020. Best has said she gave specific orders not to evacuate the precinct but that underlings did so without her knowledge.
The mayoral candidate and founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol group has sought counsel from former NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, among others.
He promised he’d stay out of police business once his selection was made.
“You’re not going to get that with Eric Adams,” Sliwa said. “He’s not going to give his commissioner independence.”
