New York City Police Department (NYPD) newly appointed female commissioner, Jessica Ticsh, once again took strong measures last Saturday, December 28th, demoting dozens of senior officers within a day and sending them to patrol at grassroots level. Her reorganization actions received support from her former boss, former police commissioner Ray Kelly, on Sunday.
A week ago, the scandal of Jeffrey Maddrey, former Chief of Department, abusing overtime pay and engaging in sexual transactions with subordinates was exposed. Ticsh immediately fired Jeseph Profeta, head of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB), and continued her cleanup operation over the weekend.
According to internal NYPD documents obtained by the New York Post, last Saturday, Ticsh removed the second in command at the police department, IAB Deputy Commissioner Chris Morello, from his position. IAB’s commanding officer Michael Ricciardi was also reassigned to the Manhattan North Patrol unit.
Internal documents revealed that Profeta was sent to patrol in Brooklyn North, while over a dozen other IAB management officers were all reassigned to various remote areas in the city for duty. Furthermore, six members of Maddrey’s office were dismissed, with most of them being assigned to patrol the city’s public housing system.
Additionally, 500 officers who were previously “improperly assigned” within the department have returned to their original posts.
On Sunday, Ticsh’s former superior, former NYPD commissioner Kelly, praised her actions on the 77 WABC radio show The Cats Roundtable and expressed optimism for the future of the NYPD.
“I have confidence in the newly appointed Police Commissioner Ticsh,” Kelly told host John Catsimatidis. “She has worked directly under me in leading two major departments, and I must say she is an excellent manager who can be a very strict supervisor. We are on the right track.”
Kelly noted that the NYPD has gone through difficult times, with a significant number of officers leaving and now facing the overtime pay scandal.
“It’s a department with 54,000 employees, it will always encounter some problems and troubles, but as I said, I hold a positive outlook on what is going to happen next year for our country and our city,” he said.
According to reports from the New York Post, former Chief of Department Maddrey had been using overtime pay for a long time to exchange for sexual services with his female subordinate Quathisha Epps. Upon the news coming out, he immediately applied for retirement. Currently, lawyers on both sides are engaging in verbal disputes, with Epps’s lawyer vowing to hold Maddrey accountable for his actions.