Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch
Photos by Dean Moses/Jonathan Portee
New York City’s top cop is staying put.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday morning that Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has agreed to remain in charge of the NYPD as the new regime takes office on Jan. 1. The announcement ends weeks of public speculation regarding Tisch’s future, and repeated public statements from the new mayor that he wanted to retain her as the city’s top cop.
Mamdani cited both Tisch’s commitment to lowering crime and her efforts to tackle department corruption as major factors in his decision to have her stay.
“I look forward to working with Commissioner Jessica Tisch to deliver genuine public safety in New York City. I have admired her work cracking down on corruption in the upper echelons of the police department, driving down crime in New York City, and standing up for New Yorkers in the face of authoritarianism,” Mamdani said.“Together, we will deliver a city where rank-and-file police officers and the communities they serve alike are safe, represented, and proud to call New York their home.”
Tisch said she is ready to “serve with honor” as the new mayor’s police commissioner, and that she shares with him “many of the same public safety goals.”
“Thanks to the men and women of the NYPD, the strategies we deployed this year have delivered historic reductions in crime,” Commissioner Tisch said. “I’ve spoken to Mayor-elect Mamdani several times, and I’m ready to serve with honor as his Police Commissioner. That’s because he and I share many of the same public safety goals for New York City: lowering crime, making communities safer, rooting out corruption, and giving our officers the tools, support, and resources they need to carry out their noble work.”
Tisch was first appointed to the role just under a year ago by Mayor Eric Adams; she was his fourth police commissioner in as many years. Upon taking office, Tisch — a former Sanitation commissioner under Adams and Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology under Mayor Bill de Blasio — immediately rearranged department insiders, and removed those with a questionable history.
According to NYPD data, Tisch has overseen a historic drop in crime under her short tenure, including the fewest reported shootings in the first ten months of the year, a 10% drop in murders, and the removal of nearly 5,000 illegal firearms.
Tisch will likely play an instrumental role as Mayor-elect Mamdani works to establish a campaign promise: the Department of Community Safety, an agency that would concentrate of mental health issues and other quality-of-life matters. Mamdani has said this agency would shift away those duties from the NYPD and allow “New York’s Finest” to concentrate more on crime-fighting.
PBA President Patrick Hendry also championed Tisch and her decision to stay.
“We are very glad to hear that there will be stability and continuity in the NYPD’s leadership going forward. Commissioner Tisch understands all of the many challenges police officers face on the streets and has been working productively with us to address them. We look forward to continuing that work in the months ahead,” Hendry said.
Still, some remain skeptical. The family of Delrawn Small, an unarmed Brooklyn man shot dead by an off-duty cop, and some elected officials are demanding Tisch continue to address corruption and uphold charges against the cop responsible.
“There’s been a lot of talk about her efforts to clean up the NYPD, and this is a very clear test right here. This is a line in the sand, and this is an opportunity to remove someone who clearly cannot do his job and did not do his job and actually murdered someone in front of his family,” Brooklyn Council Member Sandy Nurse said.