The newly appointed NYPD interim commissioner, Tom Donlon, had a long career as a federal agent steeped in terrorism investigations, and once wrote a key affidavit that laid out the steps that led probers to the culprits in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Donlon, Mayor Adams’ pick to replace Edward Caban, as an FBI agent also investigated the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack in 2000 on the USS Cole in Yemen, in addition to the 1993 twin towers bombing.
Donlon, who like Caban is from the Bronx, has also served as the head of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force and of state’s director of the Office of Homeland Security. He has also overseen worldwide security for the investment bank Credit Suisse and Blackrock, a larger financial services firm.
Now he faces a new challenge – leading at least for awhile a Police Department in crisis, buffeted by a federal investigation that is causing tremors from 1 Police Plaza to City Hall.
“I am honored and humbled to be named interim-commissioner of the New York City Police Department, the greatest law enforcement agency in the world,” Donlon said in a statement.
“My goals are clear: continue the historic progress decreasing crime and removing illegal guns from our communities, uphold the highest standards of integrity and transparency, and support our dedicated officers who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe.”
Donlon also thanked Caban for his more than 30 years with the NYPD.
Donlon joined the FBI in 1981 and was assigned to the agency’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York in 1985, his bio states.
On Feb. 26, 1993, terrorists placed a rented van packed with explosive in the underground parking garage at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan and detonated it, killing six people and injuring hundreds.
Donlon was selected as a co-case agent leading the investigation into the bombing and wrote a key affidavit that laid out the remarkably rapid capture of the bombers.
Key to the investigation was the discovery of a metal shard that contained the partial vehicle identification number for the van in the massive debris field.
In the affidavit, Donlon described how after tracing the VIN number, agents learned that a key suspect, Mohammed Salameh, had returned hours after the bombing to get his deposit for the van back. Donlon wrote how Salameh was told he had to report it to the police. The plotters were swept up from there.
Donlon also ran the agency’s New York City counterterror division and worked in the violent crime task force at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Before retiring from the FBI, he served as the chief of the National Threat Center, where he oversaw the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List.
In 2020, Donlon founded a security company called Global Security Resolutions. Minutes after Adams’ announcement, the firm’s website, which included an extensive bio of Donlon, was disabled.
Sworn in last summer as the city’s First Latino Police Commissioner, Caban as recently as Tuesday — less than a week after the FBI seized his cell phone — was telling his inner circle he had no plans to resign.
He has not been accused of any wrongdoing, nor is it clear if he was a target of the investigation. His brother James, is also being investigated, as are several other police officers and several City Hall officials.
Adams announced Caban’s resignation and Donlon’s appointment standing alone in a brief video appearance while he is quarantining with COVID symptoms. There was no opportunity to ask questions of the mayor.
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