Richie Taylor, NYPD’s Top Cop With Kippah, Promoted to Inspector

Richie Taylor, the highest-ranked yarmulke-wearing officer in the New York Police Department, was promoted to inspector on Tuesday.

Taylor is believed to have already attained the highest rank ever for a yarmulke-wearing officer when he was promoted from captain to deputy inspector last year. At 39 years of age, he is one of the youngest inspectors on the force.

“I know Richie for a decade at this point. I knew him since he was a young police officer,” NYPD Chief Ed Delatorre told Hamodia at the NYPD’s promotion ceremony at the Police Academy in College Point, Queens. “You can’t know him and not love him. His heart’s in the right place, he’s a hard worker, his integrity is second to no one else, and he’s honorable, which is so key in any friendship, any working relationship.”

Of the hundreds of NYPD members and officers promoted at Tuesday’s ceremony, Taylor was one of four deputy inspectors promoted to inspector, the rank below chief.

Richard (Yechiel) Taylor grew up in Manhattan Beach and Midwood, attending Yeshiva of Manhattan Beach and Touro College.

Before becoming a police officer, Taylor was a member of Hatzalah, and responded to the World Trade Center on 9/11.

He became a police officer in 2005, and was promoted to sergeant in 2010, lieutenant in 2014, captain in 2016 and deputy inspector last year.

Taylor has served in over 10 commands across the city, and was the recipient of the 61st Precinct Cop of the Month Award in September 2016 for making a firearm arrest solo.

He currently serves as commanding officer of community affairs outreach at the Office of the Chief of Community Affairs.

Richie and his wife, Miri, live in Marine Park with their five daughters, and the Taylor family is a ubiquitous presence at city and community events.

Joel Eisdorfer, an NYPD community liaison, told Hamodia that Taylor “is the go-to person for every community,” and that “his promotion speaks volumes for his dedication to the citizens of this great city.”

Activist Rabbi Berish Freilich said, “In my 40 years of being a community leader and police liaison, I never met a more experienced, conscientious, passionate and understanding police commander as Richard Taylor. A promotion very well deserved.”

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Photo Credits: Reuvain Borchardt/Hamodia

rborchardt@hamodia.com