NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch will stay in role under Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday she agreed to stay on the job to lead the nation’s largest police department, ending weeks of speculation about whether she would have a role in the new administration of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani, who has expressed views that are starkly different from the commissioner on important policing issues, signaled during the mayoral campaign that he intended to keep Tisch, 44, as the head of the NYPD. On Wednesday, he announced she had agreed to continue to serve in the job as the city’s 48th commissioner, a post she has occupied since November 2024. Overseeing an enormous department, the police commissioner's job is a key role and a visible one.

"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," said Mamdani in a statement, the latter an apparent reference to Tisch’s pushback on a tentative Trump administration plan — quickly reversed — to cut certain counterterrorism funding to the city, and to her opposition to the deployment of National Guard troops in New York.

In her own statement made as part of Mamdani’s announcement, Tisch said: "I have 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."

In a separate message to the city’s approximately 34,000 officers, Tisch said the reason she agreed to stay on "was you."

"I believe deeply in the nobility of your work, in what you do every day to keep this city safe, in your commitment and in your sacrifice," Tisch said in the message to officers.

But Tisch also readily acknowledged in her message that she and the mayor-elect have differences on policing issues, which she didn’t specify. Yet, Tisch also said she and Mamdani share a broad vision about keeping the city safe and stabilizing the NYPD.

"I appreciate that the Mayor-elect wants a team with different points of view — a team where ideas and policies are selected on their merits," Tisch continued in her statement to officers. "You can trust I will be a fierce advocate for you and this department."

"I think she is saying exactly the right thing, the cops should know they have an advocate in the commissioner," said Richard Aborn, head of the New York Citizens Crime Commission.

Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said he was optimistic and that Tisch was an effective commissioner. "We will just have to see," Bratton said of the future.

Differing views on several issues

Among the areas of disagreement between the mayor-elect and his commissioner is the future of the Strategic Response Group, the controversial counterterrorism and protest-policing unit. Mamdani has said he wants to do away with it; Tisch argues it's crucial.

The same goes for the criminal organization database, which the department uses to track street gangs. Mamdani and other critics have argued that it's been used for racial profiling.

Also Mamdani has supported giving the Civilian Complaint Review Board the final authority over disciplinary cases. Tisch handles it now under state law.

Then there's the mayor-elect's plan to establish a Department of Community Safety, aimed in part at removing police officers from having to respond to 911 calls about people with emotional disturbances.

The viability of such a department remains to be seen. Mamdani estimates the cost of creating it at over $1 billion, at a time when the city currently faces a budget shortfall of up to $8 billion, according to the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission.

It is unclear how the proposed department would impact police workloads. Calls for people in distress account for about 2% of all radio runs, according to police data.

Positive responses from stakeholders

But everything seemed optimistic on Wednesday, and Tisch and Mamdani appeared together at the NYC Police Memorial in lower Manhattan.

The news of Tisch joining the incoming administration was welcomed by most law enforcement experts and public officials. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had prodded Mamdani during the mayoral campaign to keep Tisch, said the commissioner remaining in the job would be well-received by officers and benefit the city.

"I think it’s a really good outcome," Hochul said during an unrelated news conference in Brooklyn. "I think there’s a calming effect on this community and it’s important."

The NYPD faces major challenges and stresses that will impact Tisch's tenure going forward. While crime continued to decline in 2025 — shootings are down 20% from 2024 and murders are down about 17% — the decline in serious felonies has slowed and will likely be lower than 3% from 2024, according to police data.

The NYPD also is facing an attrition crisis, despite an influx in recent months of several hundred new recruits. The current level of 34,000 officers is down by 6,000 from the level in 2001. With attrition said to be at 300 officers a month, union officials believe the NYPD is just treading water in terms of strength. Mamdani has said he plans to keep the NYPD at its current authorized budgeted count of about 35,000 officers.

Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry applauded Tisch’s appointment but said he remained concerned about officer retention.

"We need to retain police officers, we are losing police officers in the prime of their careers," Hendry said at an unrelated event in the Bronx. Hendry cited overwork and salary concerns as two big factors impacting the problem.

Scott Munro, head of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, called Tisch's appointment a "great day for New York City detectives and the citizens we are proud to serve."

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley, said Tisch will provide direction for a department that had been "rudderless for far too long." Tisch took over from an interim commissioner after the September 2024 resignation of scandal-scarred predecessor Edward Caban.

Donna Lieberman, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, applauded Tisch’s stances on the National Guard and the right to protest but said the NYCLU would continue to hold the NYPD accountable under the law.