Assistant Chief Olufunmilola Obe, a commanding officer from Manhattan North, joined NY1’s Dean Meminger Sunday evening to discuss her journey in the NYPD, goals for Manhattan North and more.

Obe is one of the highest ranking Black women on the force.

She was born in the U.S., but moved to Lagos, Nigeria as a young child. She moved back to the U.S. when she was in secondary school, and later attended CUNY’s City College for her undergraduate degree.

During her second year of college, she said she got a call from the NYPD to become a police cadet “and the rest is history.”

On fighting crime, Obe commended the department for its efforts. According to the NYPD, there were 43 murders in Manhattan North last year, down 36% from 2021.

She said her 12 precincts, from 59th Street to Washington Heights, started 2022 off on a tough note due to the line-of-duty deaths of Detectives Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, who were shot while responding to a domestic violence call on Jan. 21, 2022.

“So that set a tone for us as to what our mission was, which was number one: officer safety,” she said, adding that community engagement and targeting shooters helped bring the numbers down.

Obe said her precincts’ goal for 2023 is to continue with a reduction in shootings.

When asked about her response to the video of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old who was fatally beaten by five police officers in Memphis, she said “tragic” sums up her feelings.

Obe also responded to complaints that the 28th Precinct recorded people attending a recent Drake concert at the Apollo Theatre.

Obe said that she understands that some people may be concerned due to the recent controversy over Madison Square Garden’s use of facial recognition technology. However for that night, she said the precinct was just trying to gather material for their Twitter page.

“It was misconstrued and, you know, taken the wrong way, but it was just all about, you know, promoting the events of the space itself on social media,” Obe said.

As a high ranking Black woman in the NYPD, her message to new recruits is “you can do it.”

“There’s many opportunities in the NYPD that a lot of people, women included, can actually take advantage of, but I made it this far,” Obe said.