Final Tour.
On Aug. 25, 2000, when Joseph Esposito was sworn in as chief of department, the highest uniformed rank of the NYPD, he thought he would retire in 16 months.
“I said so in my acceptance speech,” says Esposito, sitting in his 13th-floor office at 1 Police Plaza on Tuesday, his next-to-last day on the job before the mandatory retirement age of 63.
“I told my wife and kids that they wouldn’t be seeing me much for those 16 months, but after (Mayor Rudy) Giuliani was gone, I’d be back home,” he says, straightening his dress tunic with brass buttons that glistened like his eyes after a four-decade-plus career.
How did he last so long as chief of department?
“I had terrific people working for me,” he says. “From three-star chiefs down to the grunts patrolling the street. I was served well.”
Brooklyn-born Esposito was raised in a railroad flat at 100 St. Marks Place, attended St. Augustine’s High, and earned a bachelor of arts in criminal justice from SUNY.
And still lives in Brooklyn.
“I was a street-smart Brooklyn kid,” he says. “I grew up playing stickball and cops and robbers. Then I became a cop, and they paid me to play cops and robbers. I still play cops and robbers every day and wish I didn’t have to leave.”
An ex-cop named Pat Russo, who served under Esposito’s command at the 66th Precinct, says that he traveled to Italy with his old boss. “Espo had won the prestigious NYPD Joseph Petrosino award, and we’re traveling all over Italy going to receptions, but he was never off that damned BlackBerry doing NYPD business. His wife, Chris, was losing her mind.”
Esposito laughs at the story the day before he finally stops doing NYPD business.
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