New York City Police Commissioner

The New York City police commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department and presiding member of the Board of Commissioners. The commissioner is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the mayor. The commissioner is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the department as well as the appointment of deputies including the Chief of Department and subordinate officers. Commissioners are civilian administrators, and they and their subordinate deputies are civilians under an oath of office, not sworn members of the force. This is a separate position from the chief of department, who is the senior sworn uniformed member of the force. The first deputy commissioner is the commissioner and department's second-in-command.^[2] The office of the police commissioner is located at the NYPD Headquarters, One Police Plaza. Both the commissioner and first deputy commissioner outrank all uniformed officers, including the chief of department.

Police Commissioner of the City of New York
New York Police Department Commissioner's shield
Incumbent Jessica Tisch since November 25, 2024
Style	The Honorable (formal) Commissioner (informal)
Appointer	Mayor of New York
Term length	Five years Renewable at mayor's pleasure
Constituting instrument	New York City Charter[1]
Inaugural holder	George W. Matsell (as Superintendent)
Formation	1845
Deputy	First Deputy Commissioner
Salary	$277,605 (2024)
Website	www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/administration/commissioners_corner.shtml

Governor Benjamin Odel, on Friday, February 22, 1901 signed a bill abolishing the bipartisan board of four police commissioners and the office of chief of police, substituting them for a single commissioner to be in charge of the force. Michael Cotter Murphy, the NYPD's first police commissioner, would be sworn in shortly thereafter.^[3]

The commissioner's responsibilities include:

• To ensure the effective day-to-day operation of the department
• To appoint the board of commissioners, the chief of the Department and all subordinate officers
• To ensure the safety and protection of New York City and its population
• To ensure the department enforces city, state and federal law

List of superintendents, chiefs, and commissioners

Pre-1901

Prior to 1901, the New York City Police Department was run by a board of four to six commissioners. The following is a list of some of the most famous members of the Police Commission:

Presidents of the Board of Commissioners

Name	Dates in office	Mayoral administration
John G Bergen Member of the Board of Police Commissioners	May 1860 - July 17, 1867	Governor Edwin D. Morgan
James Kelso NYC Police Superintendent, NYC Police Commissioner[4]	1869-1873	William M. Tweed
Henry Smith	1873–1874	William Frederick Havemeyer
Hugh Gardner	1874	William Frederick Havemeyer
George W. Matsell	1874–1875	William Frederick Havemeyer
William F. Smith	1877–1879	Smith Ely Jr., Edward Cooper
Stephen B. French	1880–1889	William R. Grace, Franklin Edson, Abram Hewitt
Charles F. McLean		Hugh J. Grant
James J. Martin	1892–1894	Hugh J. Grant, Thomas F. Gilroy
Theodore Roosevelt	1895–1897	William L. Strong
Frank Moss	1897	William L. Strong
Bernard J. York	1898–1900	Robert A. Van Wyck

Members of the Board of Commissioners

• George Washington Matsell, 1845–1857, Superintendent^[5][6]
• John Alexander Kennedy, 1860–1863, Superintendent
• Abram Duryée, 1873–1874, Commissioner
• George Washington Walling, 1874–1885, Superintendent
• William Farrar Smith, 1875–1881, President of the Board of Commissioners
• Fitz John Porter, 1884–1888, Commissioner
• Frederick Dent Grant, 1894–1898, Commissioner
• Theodore Roosevelt, 1895–1897, President of the Board of Commissioners
• John McCullagh, 1897–1898, Superintendent
• John B. Sexton, 1898–1901, Commissioner^[7]
• William Stephen Devery, May 21, 1898 – June 30, 1898 (acting), June 30, 1898 – February 22, 1901. The superintendent title was changed to Chief of Police in 1898. Devery was the Police Department's last superintendent, and first chief.^{[8][9][10][11]}
• John McClintock (police commissioner) Deputy Commissioner 1914

Post-1901

Since 1901, a single commissioner has been in charge of the New York Police Department. The following is a list of the commissioners:

Name	Dates in office	Mayoral administration
Michael Cotter Murphy[10][12][13]	February 22, 1901 – January 1, 1902	Robert Van Wyck
John Nelson Partridge[14][15][16]	January 1, 1902 – January 1, 1903	Seth Low
Francis Vinton Greene[17][18]	January 1, 1903 – January 1, 1904
William McAdoo[19][20][21]	January 1, 1904 – January 1, 1906	George B. McClellan Jr.
Theodore A. Bingham[22][23]	January 1, 1906 – July 1, 1909
William Frazer Baker[24][25][26]	July 1, 1909 – October 20, 1910
		William Jay Gaynor
James Church Cropsey[25][27]	October 20, 1910 – May 23, 1911
Rhinelander Waldo[28][29][30]	May 23, 1911 – December 31, 1913
		Ardolph Loges Kline
Douglas Imrie McKay[31][32][33]	December 31, 1913 – April 8, 1914
		John Purroy Mitchel
Arthur Hale Woods[34][35][36]	April 8, 1914 – January 1, 1918
Frederick Hamilton Bugher[37][38]	January 1, 1918 – January 23, 1918 (acting)	John Francis Hylan
Richard Edward Enright[39][40]	January 23, 1918 – December 30, 1925
George Vincent McLaughlin[41][42][43]	January 1, 1926 – April 12, 1927	Jimmy Walker
Joseph A. Warren[44][45][46]	April 12, 1927 – December 18, 1928
Grover Aloysius Whalen[47][48][49]	December 18, 1928 – May 21, 1930
Edward Pierce Mulrooney[50][51][52]	May 21, 1930 – April 11, 1933
		Joseph V. McKee
		John P. O'Brien
James S. Bolan[53][54]	April 15, 1933 – January 1, 1934
John Francis O'Ryan[55][56][57]	January 1, 1934 – September 25, 1934	Fiorello H. La Guardia
Lewis Joseph Valentine[58][59][60]	September 25, 1934 – September 14, 1945
Albert O. Williams[61]	September 14, 1945 – September 23, 1945 (acting)
Arthur William Wallander[62][63][64]	September 23, 1945 – February 28, 1949	William O'Dwyer
William P. O'Brien[65]	February 28, 1949 – September 25, 1950
Thomas Francis Murphy[66][67]	February 21, 1950 – July 6, 1951	Vincent R. Impellitteri
George P. Monaghan[68][69][70]	July 9, 1951 – December 31, 1953
Francis William Holbrooke Adams[71]	January 1, 1954 – August 2, 1955	Robert F. Wagner Jr.
Stephen P. Kennedy[72][73]	August 2, 1955 – February 23, 1961
Michael J. Murphy[73][74][75]	February 23, 1961 – June 7, 1965
Vincent Lyons Broderick[76][77][78]	June 7, 1965 – February 21, 1966
		John Lindsay
Howard R. Leary[79][80][81]	February 21, 1966 – October 9, 1970
Patrick V. Murphy[82][83]	October 9, 1970 – May 14, 1973
Donald Cawley[84][85]	May 14, 1973 – January 1, 1974
Michael Codd[86][87][88]	January 1, 1974 – January 1, 1978	Abraham D. Beame
Robert J. McGuire[89][90][91]	January 1, 1978 – December 30, 1983	Edward I. Koch
William J. Devine[91][92][93]	December 30, 1983 – January 1, 1984
Benjamin Ward[91][92][94]	January 1, 1984 – October 23, 1989
Richard J. Condon[95]	October 23, 1989 – January 22, 1990
Lee Patrick Brown[96][97][98]	January 22, 1990 – September 1, 1992	David N. Dinkins
Raymond Walter Kelly[99]	September 1, 1992 – October 16, 1992 (acting) October 16, 1992 – January 10, 1994
William Joseph Bratton[100][101]	January 10, 1994 – April 15, 1996	Rudolph W. Giuliani
Howard Safir[102][103]	April 15, 1996 – August 19, 2000
Bernard Bailey Kerik[104]	August 19, 2000 – January 1, 2002
Raymond Walter Kelly[105]	January 1, 2002 – January 1, 2014 (second appointment)	Michael R. Bloomberg
William Joseph Bratton[106][107]	January 1, 2014 – September 16, 2016 (second appointment)	Bill de Blasio
James P. O'Neill[108][107][109]	September 16, 2016 – November 30, 2019
Dermot F. Shea[108][110]	December 1, 2019 – December 31, 2021
Keechant Sewell[111]	January 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023	Eric Adams
Edward A. Caban[112][113][114]	July 1, 2023 – July 17, 2023 (acting) July 17, 2023 – September 13, 2024
Thomas G. Donlon[115][116]	September 13, 2024 – November 25, 2024 (acting)
Jessica Tisch[117]	November 25, 2024 – current

In popular culture

In the police procedural television show Blue Bloods, the fictional New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan is played by Tom Selleck. His father, Henry Reagan, played by Len Cariou, is a former commissioner.

The historical documentary miniseries, Theodore Roosevelt, depicts the life and political career of President Theodore Roosevelt, which includes Roosevelt’s time as the New York City Police Commissioner in which he worked to rid the NYPD of corruption and the frequent abuse of power by officers.

Salary

The public disclosure of salary as of 2020 is approximately $205,180.00 base, which is considered in line with what most large US cities pay their respective chief of police, and a bit lower than that of the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.^[118][119]

Gallery

• 
  Simeon Draper, who was one of the original 1857 Board of Police Commissioners
• 
  New York Police Department Superintendent John Alexander Kennedy
• 
  Abram Duryée
• 
  Joel B. Erhardt
• 
  Frederick Dent Grant
• 
  Theodore Roosevelt
• 
  William S. Devery
• 
  Michael Cotter Murphy
• 
  Francis Vinton Greene
• 
  Frederick Hamilton Bugher in 1918
• 
  Raymond W. Kelly
• 
  William J. Bratton
• 
  Bernard Kerik

See also

• New York City portal

• Lists of New York City topics
• List of New York City Police Department officers