CNBC’s Julia Boorstin and New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch speaking at the CNBC Changemakers Summit in New York City on April 16, 2026.
CNBC
Jessica Tisch did not set out with a grand plan to become commissioner of the New York Police Department, the largest police force in the United States. By her own account, her entry into public service was almost accidental.
“I wish I could tell you an honest story about a calling I had to work in public service, but that’s not the case,” she told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin at the CNBC Changemakers Summit in New York City on April 16. The summer after Tisch, 45, graduated with both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University in 2008, she happened to meet someone who was working in counterterrorism at the NYPD. “He said, ‘Why don’t you come work for me?’ And I did and it turned into one of the biggest joys and blessings of my life,” Tisch said.
What followed, however, has been anything but happenstance. Tisch has built a career defined by operational rigor, technological modernization, and a leadership style that offers valuable lessons for anyone — but especially women — navigating intense scrutiny, doubt, and constant change. In 2019, under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, Tisch was named commissioner of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication and led the city’s IT response during the height of the pandemic. In 2022, she was named commissioner of the NYC Department of Sanitation, the largest such department in the world.
Her trajectory through New York City’s government, under four different mayors, underscores a critical point often overlooked in business school: impactful leadership does not always begin with a perfectly choreographed career path. Instead, as Tisch demonstrates, it often comes from a willingness to seize unexpected opportunities and then commit deeply once inside them.
Just two weeks into her tenure as NYPD commissioner, Tisch faced the high-profile shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel and the ensuing manhunt for his killer. The moment tested not only her readiness to lead the massive NYPD but also her leadership style. Rather than centralizing control, Tisch said she relied on a team of experienced police chiefs while maintaining close oversight of key decisions.
“My style is that I like to know what’s going on. I like to understand the details, but I also like to allow talented people to do their thing,” she said. When it came time to decide to release a photo of the suspect or whether to bring in intelligence analysts to identify the person they were looking for, Tisch described her approach with police leadership as collaborative.
When Tisch first began working with the NYPD, basic technology infrastructure was sorely lacking — many police officers didn’t have cell phones or email addresses as recently as 2010. “It was the stone ages,” she said.
That juxtaposed what Tisch has looked to bring to the agencies she has led. “I’m known in city government as a modernizer,” she said.
“If the status quo doesn’t best serve New Yorkers, then I’m going to change it,” she said. “In government, there is often the inclination to rely on what you know, even if what you know isn’t what you need. And I think that that problem is more profound in government because there is less competition.”
However, Tisch also emphasized that modernization can’t come at the expense of trust. Before the first surveillance cameras were installed in the city, she said the policies outlining automatic data deletion timelines were put in place. “Privacy can’t be an afterthought,” Tisch said. “It needs to be built into the systems right from the beginning.”
Tisch credits much of her success to her ability to identify and cultivate talent. “I like to joke with my chief of staff that, if ever I leave government service, I’m going to open a talent agency, because I really have an eye for spotting talent,” she said.
This focus on talent also helped her overcome potential credibility gaps. As a relatively young leader often managing police brass with decades of experience, she relied on preparation and transparency.
“I have dedicated my professional life to the city of New York,” Tisch said. “And because I have been doing it so long, at different agencies, I get into the weeds, I do the work. When I speak publicly, I know what I’m talking about and that’s drawn from confidence and experience.”
Asked if it’s difficult to make so many decisions that can be immensely unpopular, like changing police overtime policies, Tisch posed her own question: “Would I like people to like me? Sure. But I care much more that they trust that the words that are going to come out of my mouth are going to be honest and direct,” she said.
She frames her role around a single guiding question: how to best serve the 8.5 million people of New York City. This approach has been driving measurable results. Under Tisch’s leadership, the NYPD has achieved significant reductions in key areas such as subway crime, shootings, and retail theft, the latter of which was reduced 14% last year and over 20% so far in 2026.
“I don’t worry too much about politics or publicity,” Tisch said. “I want to do the right thing by the people that I serve.”