Retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell is promising to make the NYPD the highest-paid police force in the nation if he wins his longshot bid for New York City mayor in 2029.
Chell, 57, who served as the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the department until his retirement last year, laid out his law-and-law vision in an interview with The Post on Thursday. The Independent candidate, who announced his campaign in a video on X in April, said public safety sits at the top of his agenda.
“I would make this department the highest paid in the nation,” Chell told The Post.
The 30-year veteran also vows to swell the NYPD’s ranks from roughly 35,000 officers today closer to 40,000. Beyond raw numbers, Chell wants to toughen training standards across the board — including mandatory physical fitness tests for higher-ranking officers.
“So look, every rank should be in shape,” he said. “Like every two years, you should be able to run X amount of distance in X amount of time based on your age.”
Chell, who grew up in Brooklyn and now lives in Staten Island, is positioning himself as more than a single-issue public safety candidate. He has come out swinging against socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-a-terre tax, which Chell dismissed as base-pandering. He also wants to slash waste from city government and tackle problems plaguing the city’s deteriorating public housing stock.
The tough-talking former chief insists there is a softer side the public never saw during his decades in uniform.
“Nobody knew the community side of me,” he said, noting that he organized Easter egg hunts, coloring book contests and other children’s activities while leading Brooklyn’s 75th and 79th precincts.
“No one saw it,” he continued. “No one ever writes about it.”
When pressed on his electoral prospects, Chell pointed to Mamdani’s own come-from-behind victory as proof that an outsider can break through.
“I’m gonna be that wild card,” he said. “I’m not going to subscribe to the cultural norms of any party that tells me I have to act a certain way. I’m part of this village.”
Chell enters a race still years away against a backdrop of persistent concerns about crime and quality of life in America’s largest city. His candidacy marks a rare direct leap from the NYPD’s top uniformed post to City Hall, testing whether a career cop’s brand of straight talk can resonate with a broader electorate.
The 2029 mayoral election will take place in November of that year.