NYC Mayor Eric Adams expands portfolio of Kaz Daughtry, his controversial deputy mayor for public safety
NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams has quietly expanded the portfolio of Kaz Daughtry, his controversial public safety deputy, granting him the power to help run the law enforcement units of a slew of civilian New York City agencies, including the departments of Sanitation and Parks.
The deputy mayor for public safety, a position Adams reintroduced to the municipal bureaucracy upon taking office in 2022, was previously tasked with just supervising the departments of Correction, Fire and Probation, as well as some smaller agencies and offices focused on criminal justice.
But in an executive order issued Monday, Adams wrote that the public safety deputy is now also to 'maintain liaison with and review the activities of' the law enforcement units of 10 civilian agencies, including the departments of Parks, Sanitation, Health, Homeless Services, Environmental Protection and Citywide Administrative Services.
The other four municipal agencies whose law enforcement units the public safety deputy will now also help oversee are the Administration for Children's Services, the Human Resources Administration, the Taxi and Limousine Commission and H + H, the city's public hospital system, Adams' order states.
The 10 agencies, including their law enforcement units, previously reported to other deputy mayors.
Spokespeople for Adams didn't immediately comment Tuesday on what prompted the reorganization or whether Daughtry's expanded duties come with any specific goals.
Adams' new order also instructs Jacques Jiha, his budget director, to report directly to him instead of Randy Mastro, a Giuliani administration alum recently picked to become Adams' new first deputy mayor. The chain-of-command shuffle related to Jiha was first reported by Politico.
The order gives Daughtry, an ex-NYPD official and close ally of Adams who has been at the center of a number of controversies, a much broader set of duties than both his predecessors, Chauncey Parker and Philip Banks, had on paper.
Officers assigned to the law enforcement units of the 10 agencies in question generally don't wield firearms, but are equipped with non-lethal weapons like batons. They also have the power to conduct certain arrests and issue summonses for offenses on the premises managed by their agencies. For instance, the Department of Homeless Services' police force patrols city shelters.
The expansion of Daughtry's portfolio comes after he has faced scrutiny over his tenure at the NYPD.
As the NYPD's deputy commissioner of operations, he helped run the department's Community Response Team, whose members have faced intense criticism over misconduct accusations. Daughtry has over the course of his own police career racked up dozens of misconduct complaints and is facing an active Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit over allegations that he body-slammed a protester in 2023.
More recently, the Department of Investigation found Daughtry and other NYPD brass violated city policies and acted in an 'irresponsible and unprofessional' way by using their department social media accounts to attack lawmakers, journalists and others. Last week, the Daily News reported Daughtry, who lives on Long Island, was granted a waiver to circumvent the New York City residency requirement that comes with a deputy mayor post.
Daughtry was tapped for the public safety role this month after Parker and three other deputy mayors resigned over concerns about Adams' ability to govern the city amid the Donald Trump Justice Department's effort to dismiss his corruption indictment with some unusual conditions attached, including a request for assistance with immigration enforcement. Adams has denied a quid pro quo with Trump and pleaded not guilty to his criminal charges.
Though his duties were formally more limited than Daughtry's, Banks, an ex-NYPD chief close with Adams, was known to as deputy mayor for public safety exact significant influence over the operations of the Police Department. Banks resigned in October after being ensnared in a federal corruption investigation.
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