NEW YORK — New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned Thursday, one week after it emerged that his phone was seized as part of a federal investigation that touched several members of Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle.
Caban, who had been in charge of the nation’s largest police department for about 15 months, said he made the decision to resign after the “news around recent developments” had “created a distraction for our department,” according to an email to the police department obtained by The Associated Press.
“I am unwilling to let my attention be on anything other than our important work, or the safety of the men and women of the NYPD,” he added.
At a news conference Thursday, Adams praised Caban for “making our city safer” and said he had named Tom Donlon, a retired FBI official, as the interim police commissioner. Donlon previously served as the chief of the FBI’s National Threat Center and once led the Office of Homeland Security in New York, before starting his own security firm in 2020.
Donlon said in a statement he was “honored and humbled” to head “the greatest law enforcement agency in the world,” and that his priorities would include removing illegal guns from the community.
Caban’s resignation marks the first high-level departure from the Adams administration since federal investigators seized phones Wednesday from several members of the mayor’s inner circle, including two deputy mayors, the schools chancellor, and one of Adams’ top advisers.
The subject of the investigation, which is being led by U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, remains unclear, as does whether federal authorities were seeking information linked to one investigation or several.
Caban’s attorneys, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski, said in a statement Thursday they had been told by the government that “he is not a target of any investigation being conducted by the Southern District of New York, and he expects to cooperate fully with the government.”
The Justice Department defines a target of an investigation as someone whom prosecutors or a grand jury have gathered substantial evidence against that links the person to a crime. That’s in contrast to a subject, which is someone whose conduct is merely within the scope of the investigation. But those definitions are notoriously fluid and a person not seen as a technical target one day can become a target the next as new information develops.
Federal authorities are also investigating Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, who runs a nightclub security business, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
James Caban “unequivocally denies any wrongdoing,” his attorney, Sean Hecker, said in a statement. “His work – as a consultant and acting as a liaison between the Department and a private company – is perfectly legal, especially given his previous career as a NYPD officer,” Hecker continued.
According to people familiar with the matter, other officials whose devices were recently seized include First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety; his brother David Banks, the city’s schools chancellor; and Timothy Pearson, a mayoral adviser and former high-ranking NYPD official. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Adams, a first-term Democrat, was subpoenaed in July, eight months after federal agents seized his cell phones and an iPad while he was leaving an event in Manhattan. Federal authorities haven’t publicly accused him or any officials of any crimes, and Adams has denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation that led to Edward Caban’s devices being seized is not believed to be tied to a probe that led federal investigators to seize Adams’ devices last November, according to two people familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Caban was the first Latino to lead the 179-year-old NYPD. He joined the department as a patrol officer in 1991 in the Bronx, where he grew up, and worked in precincts across the city as he was promoted. His father, retired Detective Juan Caban, had served with Adams, a former police captain, when they were both on the city’s transit police force. Three of Caban’s brothers were also police officers.
He was the department’s second-in-command before being named commissioner last year.
Caban replaced Keechant Sewell, the first woman to lead the force. She resigned 18 months into a tenure clouded by speculation that she was not truly in control of the department.
“There is nothing in the world like public service,” Caban said in an interview with his alma mater, St. John’s University, after his appointment. “My father taught me that every day on the job is an opportunity to change lives.”
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 1, the department tallied 243 murders, compared with 279 in the same period last year. Burglary, grand larceny and auto thefts were also down. At the same time, there was a 17.8% spike in reported hate crimes, 11.1% jump in rapes and smaller increases in some other categories.
Caban was also criticized for his handling of officer discipline, including two officers who did not face any internal disciplinary action in the fatal shooting of a Black man, Kawaski Trawick, inside his Bronx apartment in 2019.
___
Associated Press writers Michael Sisak and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
