New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated Tuesday that he has “no plans” to dismiss NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, firmly rebuffing pressure from his democratic socialist allies to oust the city’s top police official following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting in the Bronx.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a memorial service in Lower Manhattan honoring fallen officers, Mamdani publicly defended Tisch’s leadership, pointing to structural improvements in public safety and internal integrity since taking office.
“Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner. I have no plans to change that,” Mamdani said. “The reason that I made the decision to have Jessica Tisch as the police commissioner was because of her record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city. And over the last 10 months that we’ve worked together, we have delivered the lowest recorded number of murders in our city’s history, the lowest recorded number of shootings as well as shooting victims.”
The calls for Tisch’s removal were triggered by an October 8 federal immigration operation in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx.
During the targeted arrest attempt, ICE agents shot 28-year-old Dominican national Oscar Belgal in the neck while he was inside his vehicle, where his 5-year-old son was sitting in the back seat. The Department of Homeland Security stated that agents discharged their weapons after Belgal failed to comply with verbal commands. Belgal was taken into federal custody and remains hospitalized requiring surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his neck.
While the NYPD was not involved in the initial federal operation or the gunfire, the department’s subsequent crowd control response drew sharp criticism from progressive organizers:
ICE operates under federal statutory authority and does not require municipal permission or NYPD coordination to conduct operations within New York City.
Mamdani and Tisch displayed a unified front Tuesday during an annual ceremony at the New York City Police Memorial in Battery Park City, where 42 names were engraved onto the Memorial Wall.
The ceremony honored Detective First Grade Didarul Islam, who was fatally shot in a 2025 Midtown shooting, along with 41 department members who succumbed to illnesses linked to toxic exposure at Ground Zero following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“While we cannot feel the silence they left behind, we will refuse to let their memory fade,” Mamdani said during the service.
Police union leadership endorsed the mayor’s refusal to remove the commissioner. Scott Munro, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association (DEA), noted that rank-and-file investigators view Tisch as an effective administrator who is “doing her job” as overall citywide crime indexes decline.
While retaining Tisch, Mamdani has taken steps to address community concerns regarding NYPD oversight. Earlier this week, the mayor directed the department to initiate an exhaustive review of its use-of-force policies and evaluate tactical procedures used during recent hospital demonstrations.
Mamdani also reiterated his administration’s ongoing commitment to implement reforms that increase transparency in misconduct proceedings and transition the Strategic Response Group’s operational focus away from protest monitoring and toward counterterrorism.