Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday, Nov. 19, the appointment of Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch to serve as New York City police commissioner in his incoming administration commencing Jan. 1. As the 48th commissioner of the NYPD, he said Tisch has rooted out corruption in the upper echelons of the department and led a department-wide focus on accountability and transparency, while delivering historic reductions in violent crime.

 

The Mamdani Transition team said under the commissioner’s leadership, New York City has achieved the fewest shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history over the first ten months of the year, with murders down nearly 20 percent citywide year-to-date.

 

They said more than 4,800 illegal guns have been removed from the city’s streets in 2025, and there have also been reductions in six of the seven major crime categories. They said citywide index crime is also down across patrol precincts, NYCHA developments, and the subway system and the NYPD has also seen the four safest months in transit in 15 years, with July, August, September, and October marking record safety underground, outside of the pandemic years.

 

“I look forward to working with Commissioner Jessica Tisch to deliver genuine public safety in New York City,” the mayor-elect said. “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.” He added, “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.”

 

In the context of her decision to stay on as police commissioner, Tisch said, “Thanks to the men and women of the NYPD, the strategies we deployed this year have delivered historic reductions in crime. I’ve spoken to Mayor-elect Mamdani several times, and I’m ready to serve with honor as his police commissioner.”

 

She added, “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.”

The Mamdani transition team said together, Mamdani and Tisch will advance a coordinated approach to public safety built on partnership and shared purpose. They said that includes ensuring police officers remain focused on serious and violent crime, while strengthening the city’s response to issues like homelessness and mental health. They said a new NYC Department of Community Safety will support this work while collaborating closely with the NYPD.

 

Tisch is an 18-year veteran of public service, according to City officials. Prior to joining the NYPD, they said she led the New York City Department of Sanitation, where she oversaw the “Trash Revolution,” the most significant modernization of the city’s waste system in decades. They said she also launched citywide containerization, redesigned collection routes, and expanded litter basket service to improve cleanliness across all five boroughs.

 

Before leading the Sanitation department, they said she served as commissioner of NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, where she oversaw the city’s technology response to COVID-19, distributing more than 700,000 iPads to public school students and “standing up” the contact-tracing and vaccine-distribution systems that supported the city’s recovery.

 

Prior to that, as the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of information technology, they said Tisch modernized core police operations and advanced transparency, including body-worn cameras. Tisch began her public service career in 2008 in the NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau.

 

On Sunday, the commissioner attended the annual memorial breakfast for the NYPD Guardians, an official fraternal organization of the NYPD. Founded in 1949, the Guardians Association represents African American Members of Service and Civilian Members of Service.

 

Tisch said the Guardians stood as a source of “strength, excellence, and leadership in the department for generations. “This event is far more than an opportunity to be with friends,” she said. “It is a time to remember all the members of the NYPD who were taken from us far too soon, including all the Black women and men of this department who have served, sacrificed, and in far too many cases, given their lives in the line of duty.”

 

She added, “Their names and stories are woven into the history of the NYPD. What we do in policing, the real work, is human work. It’s built on relationships, on compassion, on lifting one another up when the job feels heavy, and never forgetting those who carried the weight before us. And that is what the Guardians Association has always done. As we remember all of those we have lost, we reaffirm the unshakeable belief that a life of service to others is the highest calling of all.”