New York City Mayor Eric Adams Appoints New Deputy Mayor for Public Safety

A new Deputy Mayor for Public Safety has been appointed by Mayor Eric Adams.

Last week, the mayor had ousted his longtime friend Phil Banks from that post at the behest of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who wants Adams to clean house of scandal-plagued aides.

Adams on Tuesday elevated Chauncey Parker to deputy mayor of public safety, replacing Banks, the friend and former NYPD chief whose phone was seized by the FBI in one of four investigations of Adams and his circle.

Banks, whom Adams nominated in 2022 despite Banks previously being an unindicted co-conspirator in an earlier scandal several years ago, resigned last week. Parker is a longtime public servant who has held management jobs in the NYPD, the city and the state and served as an Assistant US Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“He was Deputy Mayor Banks’ lieutenant, and now to elevate him to that position, he continues to say what I’ve been saying over and over again. Our bench is deep,” Adams said. Since Adams was indicted in late September on corruption charges, aides have been resigning at a rate unprecedented in modern municipal memory.

Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from his position but has chosen not to do so yet, has pushed Adams to fire aides who have been affected by the various federal investigations. The deputy mayor for public safety helps oversee police, fire, probation, criminal justice and prisons.

Parker says he will aim to target the city’s most dangerous people, especially those involved in gun violence, who he says are a small number who commit a vastly disproportionate number of crimes.

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.