New NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry is pushing back against a published report accusing him of pulling strings behind the scenes at the NYPD as a shadow police commissioner.
Daughtry was promoted to the new civilian role on July 17, serving as an Assistant Commissioner and Chief of Staff to the Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. However, his more than 15-year police career was overshadowed last month when he was accused of acting as a defacto top cop while Keechant Sewell held the official title.
The New York Post reported that Daughtry, then a detective, had been “secretly running the department behind the scenes” and even having the power to approve transfers and promotions. Daughtry rebuked the accusations, going as far as to call the allegations completely false while denouncing reports that he had tensions with Sewell, who resigned in June.
“I read the article and number one: they painted a picture like me and the police commissioner had a rift. There is not one person in this building who can say a bad thing about Commissioner Sewell. She is a great leader, a great mentor,” Daughtry declared in an exclusive interview with amNewYork Metro. “I never had an issue with the police commissioner.”
Daughtry also denied that he had any hand in running the department from the shadows.
“They said I was in charge of transfers, detectives are not in charge of transfers. Detectives can’t transfer anybody. It’s just not real,” Daughtry said.
The newly minted assistant commissioner also charged that he has not had an easy ride in the department, stating that he believes Chief Maddrey held him to a higher standard due to their background. Daughtry told amNewYork Metro that he grew up in Queens’ LeFrak City, an apartment complex that he says was rife with drug use and gun violence decades ago. Maddrey once served the 110th Precinct, which includes LeFrak City.
Daughtry recalled seeing narcotics strewn across the neighborhood during the mid-90’s as a teen while known gang members used to berate and bully him. He said things became so contentious, that his mother would hardly let him leave the apartment.
Pushing back against the culture, Daughtry said he wanted to be a cop and just so happened to meet Maddrey.
“I remember playing basketball. And a young officer at the time came up to me and says: ‘I see you around the precinct a lot,’” Daughtry remembered. “I told him I wanted to be a police officer, and that officer’s name was Chief Maddrey.”
Daughtry said that he joined the NYPD Cadet program, which, he noted, made his life harder. According to the detective, gang members in the area would dub him a snitch and even offer to pay him for intel on police activity in the area.
“They called me a snitch, they called me a rat,” Daughtry said. “I remember witnessing a shooting. I remember his face. As I was going to the playground I heard gunshots, and I saw this lady. She was holding her pocketbook over the individual’s neck—he got shot in the neck.”
Following these incidents, Daughtry said Maddrey would drive him home after serving as a cadet. Succeeding his time as a cadet, Daughtry graduated from the police academy and became a cop in 2006, serving out of the 73 Precinct where Maddrey was his commanding officer. To this day, Daughtry believes that Maddrey saved his life by guiding him toward a career in the police department.
While Maddrey functioned as his mentor throughout his career, Daughtry argued that Maddrey was harder on him because he saw himself as a father figure.
“There were no free rides there. I felt that he was harder on me than the other officers because he knew me,” Daughtry said. “I felt that the new guys would get cars and stuff like that, and I would be on foot. I never rode in a car when I was a rookie, I felt like he did that purposely because of the relationship that we had.”
Maddrey, like Daughtry, has seen his share of bad press of late. Weeks before her announced resignation, in May, Sewell hit Maddrey with disciplinary charges for allegedly voiding a former colleague’s arrest. The chief said he would contest the charges at a departmental trial.
amNewYork Metro reached out to the NYPD for further comment about the connections between Daughtry and Maddrey, and is awaiting a response.
