New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced Chapman's appointment last week as deputy commissioner for training of the nation's largest police department.

"Bill Chapman brings vast and varied experience to the all-important task of molding the future of the New York City Police Department," Kelly said. "The department needs Bill Chapman's depth of counter-terrorism and community relations."

Chapman did not return a call for comment.

Chapman resigned Jan. 21, 2005, as Bridgeport's police chief just days after the Board of Police Commissioners voted not to renew his contract for another five years. He subsequently accepted a $70,569 buyout.

The resignation came following a number of confrontations between Chapman, Mayor John M. Fabrizi and the police board.

Soon after taking the job as chief here in September 2000, Chapman hired former New York City police official John White at $82,000 as the department's new director of crime strategies. White resigned a year later, citing health issues, but after questions arose over costs billed to the city by White to travel by ferry, along with his car, to and from his home on Long Island.

Chapman himself sparked controversy after taking 72 sick days from July 2001 to June 2002, but later getting a nearly $2,000 bonus for not using sick days under a controversial program set up by former Mayor Joseph P. Ganim.

In 2003, Chapman boycotted police board meetings for several months to protest the board's approval of pensions for two officers arrested on drug charges.

Chapman and Fabrizi subsequently clashed over what the mayor claimed was excessive overtime expenses — $2 million in one year — in the Police Department, and Chapman countered that the department was not adequately funded.

In early January 2005, as Fabrizi continued to drag his heels on whether he would recommend Chapman's contract be renewed, the chief quipped, "Maybe he's not comfortable with an African-American chief," a claim the mayor angrily denied.

Last year, court papers filed in a lawsuit by a former police officer against the city revealed Chapman had assigned a senior officer to "investigate" the mayor.