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Edward A. Caban, the New York City police commissioner, resigned on Thursday at the request of City Hall, which had asked him to step aside after federal agents seized his phone last week as part of a criminal investigation.

In an email to members of the Police Department, Commissioner Caban, 57, said that the news reports about the investigations had “created a distraction for the department.”

“The N.Y.P.D. deserves someone who can solely focus on protecting and serving New York City, which is why — for the good of this city and this department — I have made the difficult decision to resign as police commissioner,” he wrote in a memo that went out to the department late Thursday morning.

The announcement of his departure, which will be effective at the end of Friday, came little more than a year after Mayor Eric Adams had appointed him in July 2023. It abruptly ended Commissioner Caban’s career at the department and underscored the chaos swirling around the mayor’s administration.

City Hall has been buffeted by four federal investigations, which have resulted in searches and seizures targeting high-ranking officials. But an inquiry involving the city’s top law enforcement official is rare, and it cast doubt on Commissioner Caban’s ability to supervise the department and make disciplinary decisions about his own force of 36,000 officers.

The administration had sought the resignation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.