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

by Reuvain Borchardt – Hamodia.com

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 in November 2020. At 39 years of age, he will be one of the youngest inspectors on the force.

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

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.

“I know Ritchie for a decade at this point. I knew him since he was a young police officer,” Police Chief Ed Delatorre told Hamodia. “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.”

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

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.

Rabbi Berish Freilich told Hamodia, “In my 40 years of being a Community leader and Police Liaison, I never met a more experienced conscientious passionate understanding Police commander as Richard Taylor. A promotion very well deserved.”

This article has been reprinted with permission from Hamodia.com