Mayor Eric Adams has tapped law enforcement veteran Chauncey Parker as the city’s new deputy mayor for public safety.

Parker, who has served as assistant deputy mayor for public safety since July, will step into the role vacated by Phil Banks, who resigned last week amid a flurry of Adams administration exits.

“Chauncey has been a leader in this area for over 40 years of law enforcement experience to run our public safety apparatus,” Adams said at a news briefing Tuesday. “Really proud to have him.”

“We had nine, nine requests to fill this position from outside of the agency — people wanted to come in and continue to do the work that Deputy Mayor Banks did. We looked over all of them, and clearly Chauncey is the best person for the job,” he added.

Parker most recently served as assistant deputy mayor for public safety, a role he assumed this past July. Mona Suazo, who has served as deputy chief of staff in the city’s Office for Public Safety for two and a half years, will now become assistant deputy mayor for public safety, the mayor said.

“When you think about who works and operates behind the scenes, who just ‘GSD,’ gets stuff done, Mona’s amazing,” Adams said, describing Suazo and Parker as a “dynamic duo.”

Parker’s previous roles include stints as deputy commissioner for collaborative policing for the NYPD, and as director of criminal justice and commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice.

He will be tasked with building on the mayor’s vision of making New York City “the safest big city in America.” 

“I am grateful for this opportunity in my almost 40 years of working in criminal justice. The most important thing I’ve learned is what is your north star, and that is the power of partnership. How we’re always stronger and better when we work together,” Parker said. 

Parker also previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and as an executive assistant district attorney for the Manhattan district attorney’s office. 

“There’s a deep bench in this city, and there’s a deep bench in this administration. We have people who want to work for the city,” Adams said.  

Suazo, meanwhile, spent nearly 19 years with the NYPD, starting in the 67th Precinct in Brooklyn, City Hall said in a news release.

Banks, whom Adams appointed deputy mayor for public safety in January 2022, tendered his resignation on Oct. 7, a little over a month after sources said the FBI executed search warrants on the homes of Banks, then-First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, then-NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and then-Adams aide Tim Pearson.

Wright, Caban and Pearson, like Banks, have all since stepped down.

Following Banks’ resignation, Adams said Banks wanted to “transition to some other things with his life,” adding that Banks didn’t “want to be a constant burden on the work that we’re doing in the city.”

Adams himself has pleaded not guilty to charges that he solicited illegal foreign donations and accepted bribes in exchange for favors from Turkish officials.