NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell on Friday vowed to continue using social media to “push back” against department critics, less than a day after skipping a City Council budget hearing where he was expected to testify about his controversial posts.
Chell, along with other senior NYPD officials such as Deputy Commissioner for Operations Kaz Daughtry, has been using official departmental social media accounts to challenge journalists, politicians and advocates deemed critical of the NYPD. The inflammatory posts have drawn widespread backlash from lawmakers and advocates, whose complaints triggered a city Department of Investigation (DOI) probe into the behavior earlier this week.
But when Chell and Daughtry were called to answer questions about their social media presence during a Thursday council hearing, they did not show.
The chief of patrol’s Friday comments came in a fresh X post in response to a New York Daily News headline that said he and other top brass were “suddenly very quiet” in their move to duck the hearing.
“Suddenly very quiet? ….NOPE!” Chell wrote on X. “Let me be clear, we will use our voice! We will always push back against false narratives and unwarranted attacks against the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect New Yorkers. As I have said in the past, we will use all of our platforms to do so! Suddenly quiet? DON’T THINK SO…..standby!”
Suddenly very quiet? ….NOPE! I did not want to waste taxpayers’ dollars talking about tweets for hours. We are here to protect our streets….
Let me be clear, we will use our voice! We will always push back against false narratives and unwarranted attacks against the men and… pic.twitter.com/Gr9z6JCrge
— NYPD Chief of Patrol (@NYPDChiefPatrol) May 10, 2024
The chief also insisted that he skipped the council hearing because he “did not want to waste taxpayers’ dollars talking about tweets for hours.” However, the Daily News reported that Chell and Daughtry were instructed by Mayor Eric Adams’ team to snub the hearing in order to prevent it from becoming “a circus.”
Chell’s comments came less than 24 hours after the hearing, during which NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Michael Gerber declined to answer many of the council members’ questions about their top cops’ online behavior. Instead, they said the DOI probe prevented them from commenting.
“It’s inappropriate for me to comment while this process is ongoing,” Caban said.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who called for the DOI inquiry, pressed Caban and Gerber about Chell’s since deleted May 1 post attacking progressive Council Member Tiffany Cabán over her criticism of the NYPD’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia late last month.
The speaker said Chell’s post, which labeled Cabán’s stance as a “horrifying affront to democracy” and called on New Yorkers to “seek the change you want by getting involved,” was political and beyond the scope of what the NYPD’s social media accounts should be used for.
“That seems to be conveying a political message, and potentially even worse, a message that could be interpreted and lead to threats,” the speaker said.
In response, Gerber insisted the post “does not violate the law, does not violate the [NYPD] patrol guide.”
“Political activity is not how we view that,” he added, while noting the department sees it as part of a debate over public safety in the city.
But Gerber refused to answer the speaker’s other questions about Chell’s post pertaining to Cabán or the department’s social media activity at large, citing the DOI investigation. The speaker asked whether the post was appropriate, who approved it, and if similar posts were still being greenlit.
“It is important that that investigation be allowed to play out in fairness for everyone involved, whatever one’s view on the posts,” Gerber said.
Speaker Adams fired back that asking the NYPD commissioner whether he thought Chell’s post was appropriate was within the scope of what he should be able to address.
“The commissioner leads this department, sir; I feel that was a very appropriate question for the leader of the NYPD to respond to this body,” Speaker Adams said.
Then, when Gerber declined to answer if similar posts to Chell’s would still be allowed amid the DOI investigation, the speaker said she took his silence as “a yes.”
“I am going to consider that as we speak, the poster or posters will continue to do such until they are told not to,” she said.
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.
