Jumping Into Action: From Community Policing to Gracie Mansion

The hand of history put Aaron Edwards just where he was needed, and when.

On March 7, Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards was on that street outside Gracie Mansion, and vaulted a barrier to interdict those would-be terrorists, because 25 years earlier, the Sept. 11 attacks had set him on the path that led to that moment.

Edwards back then was a bio major at York College, not far from where he grew up in St. Albans, Queens. He was working his way through college at Circuit City and had the idea to combine his biology degree with his sales experience for a career selling pharmaceuticals.

“And then Sept. 11 happened,” he recalled. “Just watching the first responders, how they reacted. Running in and helping people. I was 21 when it happened. It was literally the day before my 21st birthday. Watching this on TV unfold and, I thought, I want to do that. I want to help people when the tragedy strikes. I want to be the person that helps people.”

He took one of the first police exams after 9/11 and was hired.

So, responding to a terrorist attack was why he was on the street that day in front of Gracie Mansion?

“Yes, yes, it’s kind of surreal, that that was one of the reasons — main reason — why I decided to actually join, and then to be thrust in that situation. It’s pretty surreal.”

Edwards has been inundated with accolades for his response that day, including a call up at a Madison Square Garden concert for the NYPD, this OTTY award and a telephone call from Mayor Mamdani, who is not always on great terms with the police.

“He did call me,” Edwards reported. “It was a very gracious call. I certainly appreciated it.... He thanked us on behalf of him, personally, but also the City of New York. I certainly appreciated that.”

He knows it could have been a darker story.

“This was the best possible outcome, right? We have both suspects in custody. We have this device that was properly safeguarded, that did not detonate. And everyone that day, whether it was the protesters, the people in the neighborhood and certainly the cops, we all went home safe,” said Edwards. “So, that was the best possible outcome. I feel very blessed for that.”

He credits his fellow NYPD officers for the successful response. He has been getting “a lot of the accolades because, the photos, that image” of him jumping the barrier, but “everyone really did jump into action,” he said. “I was just so proud of the work that everyone did.”

While that day brought Edwards citywide attention, community service has been essential to his roles as an officer and supervisor. He has, somewhat unusually, spent a great deal of his career in Manhattan, a connection he initiated straight out of the police academy because, as a kid in Queens, he loved coming into Times Square.

So it was almost a childhood dream come true when in 2023, Edwards was named commander of the precinct that includes Times Square and Midtown South.

But as fate would have it, one of his toughest challenges on the job wasn’t at the crossroads of the world, but a block west.

“One of the biggest issues in Midtown South was this Eighth Avenue corridor,” he explained. The state special prosecutor described the strip from Madison Square Garden north to 45th Street as one of the worst drug marts in the city.

“We had a strong police presence,” said Edwards. But there were “quality-of-life issues, whether it was homelessness, whether it was the drug use,” he said. “So the question was: ‘What more can we do as a community?’”

Using a model created to improve 125th Street, Edwards helped forge the Midtown Community Coalition.

“We would meet weekly with about 20 city agencies. We get together and just talk about specific problems, talking block by block.” They took on everything from dark corners under scaffolding to services for homeless encampments.

Edwards did more than just join the effort. He described it in his capstone report that he prepared for the University of Chicago’s Police Leadership Academy, making the lessons available to cities around the country.

Aaron Edwards is indeed the very model of a modern police executive. A thoughtful planner, yet always ready to step into action, as March 7 outside Gracie Mansion exemplified.

“I’ve always been very proud to be a member of the NYPD. It’s a part of my identity. It’s a part of who I am. Long after I’m retired I will still be a cop, right? But that day, the work that the cops did, how quickly, just as a whole, we pivoted from policing a very difficult demonstration to something much more serious, and the way in which we did it, the professionalism, making sure we apprehended these suspects, keeping people away from those devices, and making sure everyone went home safe. I’ve never been so proud to be a member of this department.”