Jessica Tisch will remain New York police commissioner under Mamdani

New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, announced on Wednesday that the city’s current police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, will remain at her post when he takes up his job leading the city.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist whose election win has created headlines around the world, has been a frequent critic of the police, especially when it comes to issues of racism and police brutality.

But in an announcement, Mamdani pointed to Tisch’s leadership, under which he said the city “has seen a historic drop in crime – first 10 months of the year reported fewest shooting incidents and victims in recorded history”. Tisch was initially appointed commissioner by the now outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, last November.

Mamdani also pointed to a nearly 20% decrease in murders citywide year-to-date and the removal of more than 4,800 illegal guns in 2025, as well as the four safest months in city transit in 15 years, with July, August, September and October seeing record safety underground outside the Covid-19 years.

Hailing Tisch – who has spent 18 years in public service, beginning in the NYPD’s counter-terrorism bureau – Mamdani said he was eager to collaborate with her.

“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,” he 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,” he went on to add.

Similarly, Tisch said: “Thanks to the men and women of the NYPD, the strategies we deployed this year have delivered historic reductions in crime.”

She continued: “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.”

The announcement received support from state officials, with the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, saying: “[New York police commissioner] Tisch has been a steadfast partner in driving crime down to historic lows and improving public safety across the city. I’m glad she’ll be continuing that work under mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.”

Similarly, the New York attorney general, Leticia James, said: “I’m glad to see [New York police commissioner] Jessica Tisch will continue her work as commissioner under our Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Under her leadership, murders are down to record lows, and our city is safer than it’s been in years. I look forward to our continued work protecting New Yorkers.”

Ahead of Wednesday’s public announcement, Tisch circulated an internal email to the entire police department confirming that she had accepted the offer to remain police commissioner.

“Now, do the mayor-elect and I agree on everything? No, we don’t. But 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. We also agree that you deserve the city’s respect and support,” her email said, according to outlets that reviewed it.

Tisch said that after “several conversations” with Mamdani in which they disagreed on some issues but remained aligned in their overall goals, she will remain “a fierce advocate … for this department”.

“You know how I operate: I don’t mince words. When I say something, I mean it. And that is not going to change,” she wrote in the email.

Meanwhile, Mamdani told ABC7’s Up Close on Sunday that he had met with Tisch last week, saying: “The conversation was more about what it can look like to deliver public safety and what it could look like, especially without the distractions that we have seen over the last few years.”

Over the years, the former Queens assemblyman repeatedly called for defunding the New York police department, at one point describing the institution as “wicked and corrupt”. On the campaign trail, however, Mamdani worked to distance himself from those earlier statements, saying they were “clearly out of step” with his current views.

In July, Mamdani said, “I am not defunding the police. I am not running to defund the police,” adding that he was a “candidate who is not fixed in time, one that learns and one that leads, and part of that means admitting as I have grown”.

Wednesday’s announcement comes as the 34-year-old Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor and its second-youngest, prepares to take office on 1 January.

Since his upset win over political veteran Andrew Cuomo, a victory that energized the Democratic party’s left, Mamdani’s team has received more than 50,000 résumés for city hall roles as he seeks to “usher in a new era” in which “we put the people, not billionaires, first”.