NYPD Commissioner Forced To RESIGN After Alleged Corruption Scheme

An internal email obtained by The Post shows Caban wrote to her staff, “The news around recent developments has created a distraction for our department, and I am unwilling to let my focus be on anything but the important work of this agency or ensuring that each member remains safe.”

Caban, who was appointed last year by Mayor Eric Adams in May paid respect and extended his thanks to the department’s officers: “The NYPD deserves someone who can focus fully on protecting and serving New York City — that is why for the good of this city and this department — I have made the tough decision to step aside as Police Commissioner.”

Caban, who has been with the NYPD for three decades, was backed against a wall to retire following federal searches of his home and those of other top officials in Mayor Adams’ administration on September 4, sources said.

It is not clear what the federal agents were looking for, but sources indicated that their probe concerns massive corruption and influence peddling. The electronic devices confiscated from Caban during the raid have not yielded any charges or allegations of criminal activity against him.

In the wake of those raids, speculation had begun to mount as to whether or when Caban would resign and be forced out. But Mayor Adams has batted down such notions, saying this week that City Hall was not driving an effort to have him step aside.

When Caban was named Police Commissioner in July 2023 it was a milestone as he would become the City’s first Hispanic police commissioner. Before that he had been the NYPD’s first deputy commissioner beginning in 2022, and started his career as a South Bronx patrol officer in 1991.

At times during his administration, Caban remained out of the public eye and allowed more vocal subordinates such as Chief of Patrol John Chell to represent him.

At the same time, sources said that Caban’s twin brother, James Caban — who likewise did consulting for high-end Manhattan restaurants and nightclubs — is also under federal investigation. James, a former cop who retired from the NYPD in 2001 after being slammed with disciplinary actions for misconduct but was never criminally charged.

The probe also has, “extended to individual members of street-level officers in the various borough commands,” leading NYPD Chief of Staff Raul Pintos and two precinct commanders from Manhattan and Queens being asked to surrender their phones as part of that investigation.

The investigation has also seems to have ensnared several other major players that were affiliated with Adams in different ways, including an advisor named Timothy Pearson; the Deputy Mayor public Safety Phil Banks and his brother Schools Chancellor David Banks as well as another sibling Terence was questioned by authorities. Early First Deputy mayor Sheena Wright

The federal raids have stirred significant turmoil at the NYPD, and police leaders are holding clandestine meetings in parking lots so that they will no longer be under surveillance by those feds. Caban, who has kept a low profile since the raid on his home and seizure of electronic devices but went so far as to miss City Hall’s annual 9/11 memorial ceremony — an unprecedented move for the city’s highest law enforcement officer.