Newly minted NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has appointed a longtime ally to be her proper hand staffer — making him the division’s highest-ranking overtly homosexual officer.
Ryan Merola was sworn to function Tisch’s chief of workers throughout a promotion ceremony in Queens Wednesday, marking the brand new high cop’s first personnel resolution.
Merola boasts a protracted profession in public service, typically mirroring Tisch’s personal path.
He served as chief of workers underneath Tisch when she headed the sanitation division, and labored within the NYPD’s expertise and counterterrorism departments.
Merola additionally served as govt director for the Homosexual Officers Motion League, which celebrated his historic appointment.
“At the moment he’ll turn into the very best rating overtly homosexual and totally out NYPD Member of the Homosexual Officers Motion League,” the group’s president, Brian Downey, mentioned in an e mail from the LGBTQIA+Advisory Committee to the police commissioner.
“Ryan has labored on many critically essential initiatives for us through the years. He helped coordinate the NYPD’s response and useful resource deployment to Orlando, FL within the wake of the Pulse Nightclub bloodbath,” Downey mentioned. “He has all the time been a fierce advocate for our members, oftentimes to the very best ranges regulation enforcement and authorities.”
The selection is an early signal that Tisch is placing her stamp on NYPD management in a method that almost all of her unprecedented three predecessors underneath first-term Mayor Eric Adams had not.
Merola’s appointment additionally kicks hot-headed former appearing Chief of Employees Tarik Sheppard again to his job heading the NYPD’s press workplace.
Sheppard held each jobs underneath Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon, who was none too happy with him serving as chief of workers, in line with sources.
The pair infamously publicly brawled on the NYC Marathon — a struggle that sources mentioned was sparked by Sheppard blocking Donlon from a photograph op.
Forward of Merola’s appointment, Sheppard up to date his LinkedIn profile to mirror he’s solely serving as deputy commissioner of public data.
Sheppard declined to remark Wednesday to the Submit reporter he as soon as known as a “f—ing scumbag.”
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