After an extended, distinguished profession with the FBI, Thomas Donlon might have ridden off into the sundown. As a substitute, he says, he accepted the submit as interim NYPD commissioner in September as a result of he genuinely wished to assist.
“I have a great admiration and love for the NYPD. I knew they were having some issues and I wanted to bring my experience to help the rank and file,” mentioned Donlon, 71. “I knew what I was walking into.”
NYPD/DCPI
The Interim Police Commissioner, Thomas G. Donlon, is being sworn in at 1 Police Plaza within the presence of the NYPD government employees. (NYPD/DCPI)
What he discovered, he says, was “a lot of dysfunction” within the high management of the NYPD.
“Everyone was just doing what they wanted to do,” he says. “The feds have much better systems and structure. But they just didn’t get it.”
On Wednesday, Donlon filed a lawsuit that accuses Mayor Adams and high NYPD officers together with former Chief of Division Jeffrey Maddrey, present Chief of Division John Chell, former high spokesman Tarik Sheppard and Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry of operating a “corrupt enterprise.”
July 17, 2025: Ex-commish: ‘Corrupt’ chiefs rule NYPD
New York Day by day Information
Entrance web page for July 17, 2025: Hopes second bombshell swimsuit vs. dept., Adams in previous two weeks will spur reforms. Former NYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon (major picture) is suing the division, saying ex-Chief Jeffrey Maddrey (under proper) and different chiefs have run a corrupt group and Mayor Adams has executed nothing to cease them.
In an interview with WPIX Thursday morning, Sheppard responded by claiming Donlon was “isolated” from the beginning as a result of “his phones were taken by the FBI.”
Sheppard additionally claimed, “He (Donlon) was showing many signs of some cognitive issues that he wasn’t up to the task of being police commissioner.”
“He’s just grasping at straws, it’s pathetic,” Donlon mentioned, revealing just a little of the town edge honed in his Bronx upbringing. “In fact he’s defaming me. However he’s used to getting his approach all these years.
“Just about every day I was police commissioner, I was out in the community. Weekends. I never took a day off,” he mentioned. “So, no, I wasn’t isolated. And no, the FBI never took my phones.”
Reps for the NYPD and Adams didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Sheppard’s claims. Metropolis Corridor spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak Wednesday described Donlon as a “disgruntled former employee who proved himself ineffective.”
“This suit is nothing more than an attempt to seek compensation at the taxpayers’ expense,” she added.
Donlon’s FBI profession intersected with various the main federal gang and terror circumstances of the Nineties, together with the 1993 World Commerce Heart bombing, and the Manila Air case which was masterminded by Ramzi Yousef who was additionally concerned in planning the 9/11 assaults.
He retired in 2005 and later labored for state Homeland Safety earlier than forming a consulting firm.
He says Mayor Adams instructed him to clear his initiatives with him, however “If I did a good job, I would become full police commissioner.” However he was instantly at an obstacle from high subordinates like Maddrey, Sheppard, Chell and Daughtry.
Appearing NYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon speaks alongside aspect (L-R) NYPD Chief of Division Jeffrey Maddrey, Deputy Commissioner Operations, Kaz Daughtry, and Mayor Eric Adams throughout a press convention saying using drones Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
“The core of the issue was I had no control over them,” he says. “Adams is protecting them. They know if they screw up they are not going to be in trouble.”
Donlon says he witnessed habits among the many high brass that may by no means be condoned within the FBI.
“You would be fired,” he says. “The lack of candor, the lying. In the FBI you would be gone the next day.”
In his first employees assembly, he directed all social media posts be cleared with NYPD authorized.
“I said we need one voice here, we can’t act like cowboys,” Donlon mentioned. “What do they do? They run over and complain to Adams. If I was up to me, I would have gotten rid of them.”
At one level, Daughtry instructed Donlon he thought up a prostitution job power from Roosevelt Avenue in Queens “in a dream.”
Donlon proposed bringing the feds in to make use of their energy to make bigger narcotics and intercourse trafficking case that may actually stick. Chell, Daughtry and Maddrey didn’t need the feds concerned.
(L-R) NYPD Deputy Chief of Operations Kaz Daughtry, Appearing NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell are pictured throughout a NYPD press convention highlighting safety for the upcoming UN Normal Meeting Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Day by day Information)
“It was all about getting credit, it was all about them,” he says. “But it’s not about them. It’s about the community.”
Donlon got here into workplace intending to look at proof storage within the NYPD warehouses.
“I walk into Erie Basin, it was a disaster,” he says. “There were boxes all piled up in no kind of order. Maddrey was livid, Adams was livid. I said ‘What’s the problem? I’m doing my job.”
Quickly after he took workplace, the FBI served a search warrant on him for paperwork from 30-year-old terror investigations. Donlon says he had had no contact with delicate federal paperwork since he retired.
He says the paperwork have been so previous any restrictions on them had lapsed. “It was all generic stuff. If they had anything they would have charged me,” he mentioned. “They also told me they did this because they thought there might be something with me and Adams,” he mentioned. “But of course there wasn’t.”
On Nov. 20, he was referred to as to Metropolis Corridor for a convention. He says when he noticed Jessica Tisch, he knew he was going to get replaced. The mayor had him sit down.
“He wasn’t very nice. I think he was mad about the warehouse thing,” Donlon says. “He says ‘If you want to stay (in city government), stay. If you want to go, go. He was very abrupt, not nice.”
Donlon recalled a earlier assembly the place he briefed the mayor as Adams perused a doc, disinterested. “When I was done, there was no response and then he just said, ‘Anything else?’” Donlon mentioned.
Donlon departed the division skeptical of whether or not the highest management was actually ready to take care of a significant catastrophe.
“They were cowboys, they just didn’t really know what they were doing,” he mentioned.
He additionally thinks the division is insensitive to the wants of the rank and file.
“You can’t treat people like robots; they have lives,” he says. “These guys need some care and compassion.”
However Donlon opted to remain on in Metropolis Corridor engaged on legislation enforcement grants, till he was dismissed in April. “I still wanted to stay involved in law enforcement and public safety and I wanted to keep working,” he says.
Donlon stays indignant in regards to the therapy his spouse obtained when she was detained for 2 hours within the seventeenth Precinct after a fender bender on the East Facet on Dec. 16.
Nearly instantly, the non-public cell numbers for Donlon and his spouse Deirdre O’Connor-Donlon have been leaked to the media.
Thomas Donlon along with his spouse Deirdre O’Connor-Donlon. (Courtesy Thomas Donlon)
“That was Tarik. That was put out to hurt me,” Donlon says, an allegation contained in his lawsuit. “They need to have simply given her a summons on the scene and let her go. It was very very upsetting to be handled this fashion.
In the long run, Donlon, after a lot consideration, determined to file the lawsuit.
“I have a high tolerance level but for me to sit back and take this guff was unbearable,” he mentioned.
