NEW YORK — Two more top officials in the NYPD are headed for the exit.
NYPD Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Thomas Galati is expected to retire imminently.
The NYPD confirmed Galati's departure in an announcement that indicated Isa M. Abbassi, the chief of Strategic Initiatives, would also be leaving.
"Chief Galati and Chief Abbassi are distinguished leaders, creative thinkers and innovators who have improved policing and helped to chart the brightest possible future for the NYPD, its officers, and all the people we serve,” Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said in a statement.
The departures mark the eighth and ninth NYPD chiefs to step down over the last several months as the administration overhauls public safety leadership under a mayor who himself was an NYPD captain and made reducing crime the keystone of his political brand.
Galati, who has served in the NYPD for nearly 40 years, was tapped just three months ago as the intelligence and counterterrorism chief — a gig refashioned from operations formerly helmed by then-deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller, who left the department in June and was later hired as a CNN analyst.
Galati, who had previously been chief of the intelligence bureau, landed the new gig amid a broader personnel shuffle in the upper echelons of the department announced by Sewell in December.
Janice Holmes was named as Galati’s deputy. She is the sister of Juanita Holmes, the former NYPD chief of training who recently clashed with Sewell before her transfer to commissioner of the Department of Probation. Juanita Holmes reportedly raised Sewell’s ire by pushing new standards for physical exams for women and, when Sewell balked, circumventing her by contacting the mayor directly.
Mayor Eric Adams, who came into the job with a bevy of allies from his time in the NYPD, defended Holmes in both the recent skirmish and another one centered around rapper Cardi B visiting the police academy.
Jeffrey Maddrey, who is close to Adams, was named chief of department in December — making him the highest ranking uniformed officer at the NYPD. Sewell tapped five other acting and permanent chiefs to replace departures under Adams, who has made public safety his top priority. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks, for example, reports directly to the mayor, holds significant sway over the police department and has been gaining increasing responsibilities over other agencies across the city.
Abbassi has been with the department for 26 years, and was tapped for the chief role in May. According to the department, he helped craft the NYPD's 2023 strategic plan released in January.
While it is common for a new administration to bring in its own senior leadership team, that changeover includes an inevitable decline in institutional knowledge.
"The loss of Galati, who has been in intel for 16 years, coming on the heels of John Miller's departure, is devastating to the department's intel and counterterrorism operation,” said a former high-ranking city official under Adams, who spoke with POLITICO on the condition of anonymity.
Two other people who spoke with POLITICO said Galati was leaving the department for a job offer outside city government that made little sense to pass up.
Neither Galati nor the NYPD commented on the reasons for his departure.
The intelligence and counterterrorism division has been involved in high-profile investigations in New York City and abroad.
While the NYPD was sued for its surveillance of Muslim New Yorkers in the wake of 9/11, Galati was recently thanked by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for the intelligence unit’s assistance in convicting a Jamaica-based cleric who aided ISIS. The case, for which the cleric was recently sentenced to 18 years in prison, involved dispatching NYPD officers to the Middle East.
