The Associated Press
NEW YORK- The head of the counterterrorism bureau at America’s largest police department is leaving his post later this month.
Michael Sheehan, 51, will be a fellow at New York University and teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, his alma mater. He said he also plans to write a book about the challenges facing America’s counterterrorism efforts, as well as work as a security consultant in the financial services industry.
No replacement has been named.
“It’s time for me to go to a different level, and for the first time in my life, I’m going to be able to write and speak and enter the public policy discussion and hopefully bring a little added value to that discussion in a nonpartisan way,” Sheehan said.
Sheehan was a top United Nations peacekeeper and former State Department countertenor chief before he assumed his job at the New York Police Department in 2003.
He also served as an Army special forces commander in Panama, and was a National Security Council adviser for President George H.W. Bush’s and President Bill Clinton’s administrations.
“No one worked harder or with more professionalism or expertise,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement Friday. “He helped transform the police department so it could combat terrorism and better protect New York.”
The NYPD has more than 35,000 officers.