John Kelly was the Commissioner of the New York Police Department, who got the job over Raymond Holt.
Throughout the Series[]
Season Five[]
In The Puzzle Master, all the candidates who are in the running for the same job of Police Commissioner of the NYPD are going to be gathered in one place for a meet-and-greet. Before it, Gina Linetti presents to Holt some information she discovered on his rivals. She has photos of two John Kellys and what is the tagline for each of their speeches: "Maintaining the course." and "Remaining on the course."
Later at One Police Plaza, Captain Holt personally meets and greets one of the two John Kelly's.
In White Whale, Holt hears from Captain Olivia Crawford, a fellow rival candidate for Police Commissioner, that John Kelly is most likely to be chosen for the job.
Season Six[]
In Honeymoon, Holt objects to John Kelly becoming the NYPD's Commissioner, especially over a memo released detailing a vigilant policing initiative that is essentially a return to Stop-and-frisk. Holt says the NYPD's choosing of John Kelly is a betrayal for everything he himself stands for. Due to Holt voicing his concern to the NYC mayor, John Kelly's vigilant policing initiative is put under review. This pisses off John Kelly so he closes the bottom floor of the 99th Precinct for "renovation," indefinitely, thus overcrowding the 4th floor. This sets the recurring backstory for the 99th Precinct's war with the NYPD in the show's Season Six.
In Hitchcock & Scully, John Kelly shows up at the 99th Precinct because Holt is going on TV for an interview to the people, to voice his objections and criticisms against Kelly. Holt thought Kelly was behind the fake Internal Affairs (IA) investigation into a past case of Hitchcock's and Scully's but that turned out to not be true. Instead, Holt accidentally ends up giving Kelly suggestion ideas on possibly making things worse for the 99th Precinct.
In The Honeypot, it was revealed that Holt's newly-hired assistant Gordon Lundt was sent as a spy undercover by John Kelly to find who will be in the team of Captains recruited to oppose Kelly as Commissioner. Holt and Jake Peralta thought they were about to get Lundt to double-cross Kelly but then Lundt ended up triple-crossing them. Kelly was hoping to use the wiretapped recording against Holt, to play to the mayor that he can make Holt look bad. Fortunately Holt was overly prepared and planted microphones and hidden cameras in numerous places to catch Kelly and Lundt plotting instead.
In Gintars, Rosa Diaz wants to ask the FBI to bring in a team of lab techs to help her in solving a case. Captain Holt said this will require Commissioner Kelly signing off on the request. Later in the week, after Holt and Amy Santiago almost detours Rosa's investigation into the case, Holt tells Rosa that he will ask Commissioner Kelly to approve her initial request for a FBI lab team. Rosa said it won't necessary for that anymore, therefore an interaction between Holt and Kelly is avoided.
In The Bimbo, Amy said she will put in a request for a new refrigerator since the current one broke down. Rosa tells her good luck in getting that approved, stating that Commissioner Kelly slashed their budget so much. Hitchcock complains about the toilet paper being 1-ply now and the air conditioner is broken; while Scully repeatedly comments that his butt hurts all the time because of the former.
In Sicko, Kelly advertised his app, HotClues as a reliable replacement to typical police work, giving Jake and Charles a tip about the serial killer investigation they were looking into. After finding the data accurate to Kelly's tip, Holt and Jake apologize to Kelly, but rescind it once Kelly's assistant slips up with his catchphrase, revealing that it was him who sent the tip to them in the first place. Kelly informs Holt and Jake that he has 'unofficially' authorized a Stingray which can track calls, messages, location and call history, voicemails bouncing off the tower, which is highly illegal, and the HotClues app is a money-laundering front using the data retrieved from the Stingray. To take him down, Jake recruits Madeline Wuntch, The Vulture and Jason Stentley, enemies of the Nine-Nine.
In The Suicide Squad, Madeline Wuntch busts Jake plotting against Kelly, getting into his good favor. When Kelly, Wuntch and Holt were about to interrogate Jake regarding his charges, Wuntch took his phone and cloned his mobile data to a secure server, along with every authorization of his Stingray. Caught red-handed, Kelly leaves the room furiously.
Kelly was later removed from the Commissioner post and the NYPD itself due to his illegal and unconstitutional activities. But even after that, Wuntch mentions that after being expelled from the NYPD, Kelly found "a much higher-paying job in the private sector", to which Holt replies, "Yes... the world is horrible".
Trivia[]
- The two John Kellys in Season Five were not played by the actor who is credited as playing John Kelly in Season 6.
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