Jessica Tisch to Remain NYPD Commissioner Under Mamdani

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Nov. 19 that Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has agreed to remain in her role.

Her decision comes after Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who once called for defunding the New York Police Department, said he would ask Tisch to stay on after he was elected.

“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, who during his campaign apologized to the NYPD for his defund comments, said in a statement.

Tisch, heir to the multibillion-dollar Loews Corporation fortune, has served nearly 20 years in government. She has opposed the state’s bail reform laws, which Mamdani supports, and called on the city to hire more officers.

In an email to the police department Wednesday, Tisch highlighted areas of agreement with Mamdani.

“In speaking with him, it’s clear that we share broad and crucial priorities: the importance of public safety, the need to continue driving down crime, and the need to maintain stability and order across the department,” Tisch wrote in the email, which was seen by The Associated Press.

Later that day, Mamdani and Tisch attended a Manhattan memorial for fallen officers. They skirted questions about their past disagreements, with Tisch saying she wanted to “leave politics out of it today.”

Tisch became police commissioner last November as scandals shook Mayor Eric Adams’s administration and the NYPD. Federal agents seized electronic devices from Adams and top aides, including then-Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned. The home of his successor, Thomas Donlon, was also searched.

In her early tenure, Tisch fired several high-ranking officials. Crime rates, including shootings, have declined.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who supported Mamdani, praised the decision as “a very good outcome,” suggesting it could prevent federal action in the city.

“This is an important step to send a message to the Trump administration that if you’re coming here on the pretext that we need the National Guard because crime is going up in the city, that is not the story being told here in New York. Not at all,” Hochul said at a news conference on a separate topic.

Hochul had advocated for Mamdani to keep Tisch, saying that the commissioner has been successful in reducing crime.

Since winning the mayoral campaign, Mamdani has appointed experienced figures to his team, including a veteran budget expert as first deputy mayor and former deputy mayors to oversee his transition.

Tisch, who graduated from Harvard University, previously headed the sanitation department. She first worked in the NYPD’s counterterrorism unit after 9/11.

Mamdani has called for numerous controversial policies, including free buses, rent freezes, universal child care, and, by 2030, a $30 minimum wage.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.