Del Pozo passes top cop torch at the Five-O

Not even four months after his promotion to Deputy Inspector, Brandon del Pozo, commanding officer of the 50th Precinct, is being transferred to the 6th Precinct in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. He is being replaced by Captain Kevin Burke, from Washington Heights’ 33rd Precinct.

Deputy Inspector del Pozo was informed of his transfer on May 26 and will have officially switched posts by 12:01 Wednesday morning. He said the transfer from the 50th — where he has been commander since October 2009 — was “bittersweet.”

“Its a weird time for me, obviously very emotional,” he said.

Known as much for his academic prowess as for his law enforcement acumen, Deputy Inspector del Pozo has a philosophy degree from Dartmouth College, a master’s degree in criminal justice from the City University of New York’s John Jay College, a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University and has nearly completed a doctorate in philosophy.

His education often surfaced when he discussed policing the 50th, as he used  unusual language to describe his crime-fighting work. 

“It was ultimately a Sisyphean effort to get people to not leave valuables in their car,” he said in his office on Friday, reflecting on his goal of cutting down vehicle-related crimes in the area.

In Greek mythology, King Sisyphus is forced to spend eternity rolling an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down so that he can push it back up.

A former army officer, before taking the helm at the Five-O, Deputy Inspector del Pozo was assigned to the NYPD’s Intelligence Division and Internal Affairs Bureau, and he served two years as an intelligence liaison in the Middle East. He has also worked the beat in some of Brooklyn’s tougher neighborhoods, including Flatbush, Crown Heights and Brownsville.