Who is Tom Donlon? What we know about Mayor Adams’ new (interim) police commissioner

Mayor Eric Adams appointed global security executive and department outsider Thomas Donlon as New York City’s interim top cop Thursday following NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s resignation.

The mayor announced Donlon’s appointment right after revealing that Caban had tendered his resignation during a Thursday afternoon live-streamed address. Caban stepped down after his home was raided and his electronic devices were seized by federal agents last week in connection with a reported corruption investigation into the NYPD’s enforcement of nightlife establishments.

“To ensure crime keeps going down in our city, today I am taking immediate action in appointing Tom Donlon as interim police commissioner,” Adams said. “Tom joins a team at 1 Police Plaza that is relentlessly dedicated to public safety and protecting New Yorkers.”

In a statement, Donlon said he wants to “continue” Caban’s work of lowering crime across the five boroughs during his tenure.

“My goals are clear: continue the historic progress decreasing crime and removing illegal guns from our communities, uphold the highest standards of integrity and transparency, and support our dedicated officers who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe,” Donlon said in a statement. “I want to thank outgoing Commissioner Caban for his service to this department throughout his more than 30-year career and I look forward to building on the progress this administration has made keeping New York City the safest big city in America.”

Donlon currently runs a security firm — called Global Security Resolutions — that he founded in 2020. Shortly after the mayor announced his appointment as interim commissioner, Global Security Resolutions’ website appeared to have been taken down.

Prior to founding his own firm, Donlon spent much of his career working for federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI — one of the agencies investigating the Adams administration — and the Office of Homeland Security for New York State, according to a bio shared by City Hall.

At the FBI, Donlon last served the agency’s chief of the National Threat Center’s Section. In that role, he oversaw a multi-agency Global Threat Watch, the bureau’s Terrorism Watch List and terrorism database called Guardian.

Additionally, he worked on the FBI’s investigation of the Feb. 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing; six people were killed in the terrorist attack that proved to be a harbinger for the destruction on Sept. 11, 2001.

Donlon also worked as director of the state’s Office of Homeland Security between 2009 and 2010. In that position, he led New York’s statewide counterterrorism strategy and was the state’s primary contact for the US Department of Homeland Security.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams reacted to the mayor’s choice of Donlon by emphasizing that he is largely unknown to those in city government.

“I’m not quite sure that even the rank-and-file understand and know him, much less myself and my colleagues,” she said.

Donlon is the third person to serve as police commissioner during Mayor Adams’ first term. Keechant Sewell, the first female commissioner in NYPD history, was initially named to the post at the start of Adams’ tenure in 2022. She would step down in July 2023 amid reported tensions with the administration.

Adams then elevated Caban from first deputy commissioner to top cop.

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