NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch made a round of administrative appointments Thursday, naming new heads to the department’s public information and technology bureaus.
Tisch named Delaney Kempner as the new Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, replacing controversial top spokesman Tarik Sheppard. Kempner has spent the last four years as director of communications for New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
Kempner will not start until Jan. 13. In the interim, Assistant Commissioner Carlos Nieves will serve as acting DCPI, officials said. Sheppard will be put back in uniform and assigned a leadership role in the department, law enforcement sources said.
Other appointments include Kristine Ryan as Deputy Commissioner of Management and Budget — marking the second time she has been in this role — and Yisroel Hecht as the department’s new Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology. Hecht is currently serving as Deputy Commissioner of Infrastructure Management for the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation.
Tisch named Alex Crohn as Deputy Commissioner of Strategic Initiatives and Steven Harte as Deputy Commissioner of Support Services.
“This group of skilled and experienced leaders will answer the public call to transform NYPD technology, modernize our fleet, and elevate the department’s voice to make Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect central to our communication and interaction with the people we serve,” Commissioner Tisch said Thursday. “New Yorkers should have every confidence that these appointments make their police department stronger, our service better, and our city safer.”
In one of his last acts as DCPI, Sheppard attended a luncheon at police headquarters for local media Thursday, where he thanked the press and his staff for getting out important information and sharing the NYPD’s story with the public. He pointed to the arrest of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione as an example of how DCPI and the press worked together to distribute images of the gunman, which ultimately led to his arrest.
Sheppard was considered one of the most visual, outspoken, and sometimes volatile public information commissioners in the department’s recent history
He was often front and center at press conferences and was seen wearing a bullet-resistant vest at high-profile operations such as when the NYPD cleared the Columbia University campus of protesters.
He also defended NYPD executives’ controversial use of social media to blast reporters and legislators they disagree with.
During the New York Marathon last month, while he was temporarily reassigned as former Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlan’s Chief of Staff, Sheppard got into a public shouting match with the NYPD’s top cop. Nearby NYPD officers had to separate the two men, witnesses said.
Tisch was sworn in as NYPD commissioner on Nov. 25. One of her first acts in office was to name longtime aide Ryan Merola, who had worked with her at the Department of Sanitation and other agencies, as her chief of staff.