Mayor Eric Adams is expected to name Robert Tucker the new FDNY Commissioner Monday, according to City Councilmember Joann Ariola, who chairs the Council’s fire and emergency management committee. He’ll take the helm of a department with 17,000 firefighters, emergency medical workers and other employees.
Most recently the CEO of a private security company, Tucker takes the reins from Laura Kavanagh, who stepped down last week after less than two years on the job. Kavanagh was the first woman to serve as fire commissioner, and her tenure was marked by internal strife. Ariola and some of Kavanagh’s other critics Monday sounded a note of optimism for a better relationship with Tucker.
Stakeholders within and outside the department criticized Kavanagh over the fact that she had never been a firefighter. Neither has Tucker. At his previous job, he led T&M Protection Resources, a tech company headquartered in Manhattan that specializes in cyber security, executive protection, surveillance and background investigations. He has been a longtime board member of the FDNY Foundation, the not-for-profit organization that raises funds for the department.
A self-identified “fire buff,” according to his biography on the FDNY Foundation website, Tucker says he used to chase fire engines on his bike while growing up in the city. As a teenager, he worked at the FDNY’s Manhattan Communications Office, then located in Central Park.
Mayor Eric Adams is slated to make an “appointment-related announcement” Monday morning at the FDNY Fire Academy on Randall’s Island. The Daily News first reported the selection Sunday night.
According to his bio, Tucker went to law school at Pace University and worked his way up to special assistant to the Queens District Attorney. He also served as a member of the Committee on Character and Fitness for the Ninth Judicial District of the New York State Supreme Court, which reviews potential candidates for legal licenses, and served as chairman of the New York State Security Guard Advisory Council until 2021.
Tucker remained close with several of the FDNY top brass. In 2014, then-Commissioner Salvatore Cassano named him an honorary fire commissioner. Tucker is on the board of trustees of the New York City Police Foundation, and serves as police board commissioner of the Westchester County Police Department.
Ariola, who has been critical of Kavanagh, said in a statement on Monday morning that the FDNY “has faced its fair share of challenges in recent years, and it no doubt will face a number of challenges in the future.” She said she hoped Tucker’s leadership would be a “fresh start and a brighter tomorrow.”
But it remains to be seen whether Tucker, with his long-standing relationships to FDNY establishment figures, will bring the change and accountability that critics have said the FDNY needs.
Tucker will be closely watched for how he handles a tight-knit culture that has for years been criticized for racism and sexism. In the wake of Kavanagh’s departure, several women firefighters spoke out about their personal experiences that included derogatory language and bullying.
Regina Wilson, president of the Vulcan Society, an association of Black firefighters, said that Kavanagh had not addressed the complaints of women and people of color in the department, and that her group is willing to work with the new commissioner to institute better staffing and oversight.
She does not want to wait long to see changes.
“We will call out anything that is not useful to recruitment and decent working conditions,” she said.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association union did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tucker’s appointment.