Benjamin Ward, New York's first Black police commissioner, dies

Jet, July 8, 2002

Benjamin Ward, who made New York City history as the city's first Black police commissioner, died at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens. He was 75.

Ward, who had chronic asthma, was found unconscious at his home and taken to the hospital, where he later died.

Appointed commissioner in 1984 by then-Mayor Edward Koch, Ward oversaw the nation's largest police department during the rise of the crack cocaine epidemic and a sharp increase in crime and murder.

It was also a period of racial unrest, marked by the shooting of four Black youths by White subway gunman Bernhard Goetz, the police shooting of an elderly Black woman and the death of a Black man chased by a White gang onto a highway.

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Ward served in the Army during World War II. He joined the NYPD in 1951 with the third-highest score of 78,000 applicants who took the police entrance exam that year.

Ward was the first Black officer in Brooklyn's 80th Precinct, where he faced resentment from both White residents and White fellow cops. He wasn't assigned a locker at the precinct, forcing him to dress at home and ride the subway to work in his uniform for three years.

Ward eventually returned to college and earned bachelor's and law degrees, sparking his promotion to posts such as deputy commissioner, executive director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board and city corrections commissioner.

Ward was also named the state's first Black correctional commissioner.

Ward, who served as police commissioner from 1984 to 1989, is survived by his wife, Olivia Tucker, and their five children.