Chief Jeffrey B. Maddrey was appointed the new Chief of Community Affairs on Jun. 24, 2020, and has been given a mandate to reimagine the critically important Community Affairs Bureau within the NYPD. He spent his first few days listening to what his colleagues, and the residents of the neighborhoods he will serve, want and need.

 

He’s visited precinct station houses, held virtual meetings with community and elected leaders, listened at houses of worship and walked the streets over the holiday weekend to hear people’s vision for fair and effective policing in the 21st century. Maddrey takes over the bureau at a watershed moment in police-community relations.

 

Assuming command of Community Affairs culminates the arc of Maddrey’s experiences perfectly, as a child of New York, a product of its schools, and as a public servant with three decades of distinction, including extensive grassroots community involvement during his five recent years as borough commander in Brooklyn North.

 

According to a police department press release dated Jul. 7, 2020, “Maddrey rose as a leader within the NYPD as it rebuked years of aggressive policing tactics that disparately targeted Black and Hispanic New Yorkers, and he has been a leading voice for reinforcing policing’s basic mission of keeping people safe while adopting the kind of sweeping reforms that, according to the police agency, have been a beacon for the profession, nationally, over the past six-and-a-half years”.

 

“We, in the NYPD, reaffirm our promise to earn and strengthen the community’s support to help put an end to the crime and violence that victimizes innocent New Yorkers,” said Maddrey at a recent press briefing. “But mostly, we pledge anew to listen carefully to all voices so that your police become the police you need and desire and want in the pursuit of your productive lives.”

 

https://t.co/8azv2dmNI3

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 7, 2020

 

According to the press release, under Maddrey, the Community Affairs Bureau is being reinvigorated to seek out voices in all of New York City’s neighborhoods, and the answers received will inform the work of the Community Affairs Bureau. The goal of the agency is to work with community members in the shared mission of public safety.

 

Maddrey has, according to the NYPD, a great understanding of the violence that, even in an era of low crime, has afflicted neighborhoods where he has served. Now, he is committed to using all of the resources and tools of the Community Affairs Bureau to help to reduce that kind of violence – working with the Patrol and Detective bureaus and others in the NYPD in that shared mission.

 

As previously reported by Norwood News, Maddrey joined the New York City Police Department in April 1991, and began his career on patrol in the 110th precinct. He has also served in the 60th, 67th, 70th, 72nd, 73rd, 75th and 77th precincts, the Brooklyn South Task Force, Patrol Borough Brooklyn South and Patrol Borough Brooklyn North. He was promoted to sergeant in February 1998, lieutenant in March 2001, captain in May 2003, deputy inspector in December 2006, inspector in November 2008, deputy chief in December 2011, and assistant chief in March 2015.

 

He most recently served as Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North. He also commanded Housing Borough Brooklyn, the Brooklyn South Task Force, and the 73rd and 75th precincts. He served as executive officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, the 60th, 70th and 72nd precincts.

 

Maddrey holds a master of science degree in human services leadership from St. Joseph’s College, and a bachelor of science degree in criminology from John Jay College. He is also a 2007 graduate of the Police Management Institute at Columbia University.