A woman takes command of the New York Police Department.. for the first time in the history of the famous city

A woman is set to lead New York's police force for the first time in its 176-year history, Mayor-elect Eric Adams announced.

The New York City police force is led by Kitchant Sewell, 49, who served in Nassau, Long Island for 23 years and was promoted to a senior police inspector in September 2020.

According to the BBC, Adams announced that Sewell's appointment to the position was a fulfillment of an election promise he made during his campaign to be the city's police commissioner.

"One of the former NYPD chiefs told me that women sit on the benches and are not allowed to interfere when it comes to policing," the mayor of New York told the media.

"It has stopped working in this way today," he added.

Raised in Queens, New York, Sewell has worked for the Nassau Drug Enforcement Administration and that department's major case units as well as a hostage negotiator.

And when Sewell takes office next January, she will be the third black person to lead forces in the New York Police Department.

Sewell said she understood the "historic nature of this announcement" and that she hoped it would improve relations between police and New York City residents.

"I will have my own perspective to make sure that the police department will resemble the city it serves, and help me in my decision-making just as Mayor Adams did to lead women and people of color," she added.

Bill de Blasio, the outgoing mayor of New York, had a tense relationship with the New York Police Department.

In 2015, police officers turned their backs on de Blasio at the funeral of a police officer killed on duty.

The New York Police Force employs 35,000 people, 18% of whom are women.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news