Mayor Zohran Mamdani says there are 'no plans' to remove Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday rebuffed demands from his political base to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, saying he’s pleased with the job she’s done.

Speaking in Queens at an unrelated event, Mamdani cited New York City’s falling crime rate as a key reason to keep her on the job.

"Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner," Mamdani said, in response to a reporter's question. "I have no plans to change that. 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."

Tisch was appointed in 2024 by now-former Mayor Eric Adams after scandals involving his past police commissioners as well as his own corruption indictment. Gov. Kathy Hochul strongly encouraged Mamdani to retain Tisch.

On Saturday, the national chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member, posted on X: "We demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and use every power available to him to drive ICE out of New York City."

As a mayoral candidate, Mamdani pledged to enact NYPD policing changes that align with the DSA's wishes. But 10 months into the job, those promises have gone largely unfulfilled:

• He hasn't disbanded the Strategic Response Group, the unit that polices protests and responds to significant incidents such as terrorism, and has come under criticism for what are perceived to be heavy-handed tactics and brutality. He says "conversations" to disband the unit are underway.
• His promised Department of Community Safety, meant to change how mental illness calls are handled, has been established as a small mayoral office with little apparent power or budget.
• He has backtracked on ending a gang database that the NYPD argues is essential to controlling crime, but that critics, including candidate Mamdani, have said unfairly ensnares mostly Black and Hispanic youths for mere social media bluster.

There also have been detainee deaths and the continuation of quality-of-life enforcement tactics, so-called broken windows policing, that critics say disproportionately targets Blacks and Hispanics.

Just what role the NYPD's policies play in crime rising and falling, regardless of brass, has long been a hotly debated topic in social science. Some studies credit NYPD deployment for crime drops; other studies have come to opposite conclusions. And still others note that crime is falling nationwide.

Calls to fire Tisch, a billionaire heiress to a real estate fortune and longtime municipal bureaucrat, intensified over the past week amid a series of revelations, including that her department let an officer retire before he could face a disciplinary trial for shooting a man in Queens who was in the throes of a mental crisis. She later apologized.

The calls also grew louder after the shooting by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week on the Manhattan-Bronx border of a Dominican man who was living illegally in the United States. Critics decried the NYPD's response to protests in the shooting's aftermath.

On Tuesday, Tisch appeared with Mamdani for the first time since the intensified calls for her ouster. The two spoke at the unveiling of new names on a police memorial in lower Manhattan. Tisch, who does not, by practice, answer questions on topics beyond her choosing, declined to comment on the calls for her ouster. 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.