Richard Edward Enright (August 30, 1871 – September 4, 1953) was an American law enforcement officer, detective, and crime writer and served as NYPD Police Commissioner from 1918 until 1925.

Although his eight-year tenure as commissioner received heavy criticism at the time of his resignation, mostly as the result of controversial actions of then Mayor John F. Hylan, his accomplishments and successes were eventually recognized as valued contributions during his near 30-year service on the police force.

His popularity and pro-union views had a negative impact on his career however, most especially his criticism of the policies of the Mitchel administration, resulting in his being passed over for promotion to police captain three times "for the good of the service".

[1] Other reforms he made included successfully petitioning the federal government to exempt police officers from being drafted, established the Missing Persons Bureau as a 24-hour service, and increased the number of policewomen on the force.

[1] He also advocated universal fingerprinting registration, not only for crime prevention but to resolve any kind of identity question, as well as convicted criminals being required to pay damages to both the victim and police with money earned while in prison.

[2] During the early years of Prohibition, the police force came under fire for widespread corruption and its ineffectiveness in the enforcement of the Volstead Act and the rising violence from the "Bootleg Wars".

The next year, Enright issued libel suits against an assemblyman and city magistrate based on correspondence charging police bootleg grafting.

[2][3] In the years following his retirement, he served as a colonel in the Army Reserves, briefly published a pulp magazine and had an interest in automatic alarm signals for stores and businesses.

[1] On the evening of September 3, 1953, the 82-year-old Enright suffered a serious spinal injury when he fell at the Clocks Boulevard home of a female friend, Mrs. Mary D. Beal, in Massapequa, Long Island.

[1] In 1925, Enright was presented with a bust portrait by the sculptor Paolo S. Abbate, which was later described as one of the artist's better-known works while it was on exhibition at the New York City Hall in 1962.

[12] The Lloyd Sealy Library of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City holds two drawings of Enright, dating from 1924 and 1929.