Thomas G. Donlon was appointed as the Police Commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Eric Adams on September 13, 2024. A dedicated public servant in the law enforcement, intelligence, and corporate communities for decades, Commissioner Donlon is a subject matter expert in crisis management, security, risk management, investigations, executive protection, special events, due diligence, and other law enforcement programs.
Commissioner Donlon retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after serving as the FBI’s Chief of the National Threat Center’s Section. In that position, he was responsible for a multi-agency Global Threat Watch, the FBI’s Terrorism Watch List, and developed and implemented “Guardian” – the FBI’s first centralized terrorism threat database.
His other assignments in the FBI included: Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New York Counterterrorism Division, Coordinating Supervisory Special Agent, and a Supervisor in the FBI’s New York City Office. Commissioner Donlon also served as a program manager in the Violent Crime Major Offenders Section of the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, assigned to FBI Headquarters.
As a Special Agent, Commissioner Donlon had a diverse career, including an assignment to the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in the FBI’s NYC office, where he was co-case agent on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing investigation. During his career with the FBI, he worked on several notable terrorism cases including Manila Air, the 1998 East Africa and U.S. Embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and others.
Commissioner Donlon also served as New York State’s Director of Office of Homeland Security, where he directed and coordinated a comprehensive state-wide counterterrorism strategy, as well as working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to review and authorize the distribution of federal counter-terrorism grant funding across the state.
Additionally, Commissioner Donlon has served as Director of Security for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), Eastern Regional Director of Security for Westfield Corporation, and was the co-founder and CEO of Global Security Resolutions.
Commissioner Donlon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Iona University.