Jessica Tisch named NYPD commissioner
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Jessica Tisch was appointed to be the city’s 47th police commissioner on Wednesday. Photo via Mayoral Photography Unit
By Ryan Schwach
Mayor Eric Adams officially named Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch as the city’s new top cop, making her the fourth person to serve as the head of the NYPD during Adams’ mayoral tenure.
Tisch, who spent years working in the technology division at the NYPD, will succeed Interim Police Commissioner Thomos Donlon, who was filling in after former Commissioner Edward Caban resigned amid a federal probe reportedly into his work leading the agency.
Tisch, who is a member of one of New York’s most powerful families, has spent nearly two decades working in the halls of the city’s government. She previously served for 12 years with the NYPD and has spent the past three years leading the Sanitation Department.
“I need someone that's going to take the police department into the next century,” the mayor said while making the surprise appointment on Wednesday. “I need a visionary. I need a person that can look at how we do everyday operations and do what she has done over at the Department of Sanitation and the other fields that she has provided the city government.”
Tisch will be the second woman to lead the NYPD, following Keechant Sewell, Adams’ first commissioner who resigned after reportedly getting into a dispute with Adams in June 2023.
“I thank Mayor Adams for the tremendous honor to now lead the NYPD, and I understand the solemnity of this great responsibility,” Tisch said. “It is now my distinct honor to advance Mayor Adams’ vision of fighting crime and disorder; keeping our great city safe and vibrant; protecting all New Yorkers, including our officers who put their lives on the line every day, so they can live free of fear; continuing to build the most nimble municipal counterterrorism apparatus in the world; and implementing the most forward-thinking law enforcement training and technology. We will do all of this with integrity as we continue to build public confidence and trust in the police.”
The daughter of New York City business magnate James Tisch, the Harvard graduate first joined city government through the NYPD in 2008, working as the deputy commissioner of information technology, where she oversaw the NYPD’s 911 operations.
That work garnered her a promotion to the commissioner of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications in 2019, where she ran the largest municipal IT organization in the country.
In 2022, Adams appointed her to lead the DSNY, where she helped the mayor in his push to expand trash containers on city streets, and his ongoing war with the city’s rat population.
“As commissioner of the Department of Sanitation for nearly three years, Commissioner Tisch has been one of the most successful managers in our administration, leading the city's waste collection, recycling, disposing as well as cleaning and snow removals for approximately 6,500 miles of city streets,” Adams said.
In her first remarks as top cop, Tisch spoke directly to the members of the NYPD.
“I believe very deeply in the nobility of the police, and the profession of policing,” she said. “I will always honor that work.”
Tisch’s appointment, while long rumored, was a surprise on Wednesday. Adams made the announcement from City Hall during a press conference his office initially listed as a budget announcement. Only after announcing the city would add around 1,600 prospective cops to its police academy classes did Adams say Tisch was taking over the department.
Adams also recognized Donlon, an FBI veteran who came into the role following the turmoil in the department sparked by the investigations into Caban, and the separate probe into the now-former deputy mayor for public safety, Phil Banks. While Donlon was initially seen as a stable figure atop a troubled agency, the appearance didn’t last. Donlon’s home was raided by federal authorities around a week after he took the job. The search was unrelated to the investigation into Caban and other members of the NYPD.
“I appreciate him stepping in…[Donolon] did not want to do this,” Adams said. “I asked him, could he come in at the time and stabilize the agency that I love so much? He agreed to do so, agreed to come out of his comfortable setting, enter this very loud arena, and I cannot thank him enough.”
Donlon will continue to work in a public safety role within the administration, however, the mayor did not say exactly what his new job would entail.
Like all NYPD commissioners, Tisch’s tenure atop the largest police department in the country will be closely watched.
Almost immediately on Wednesday, the Legal Aid Society called on the new commissioner to make major changes to the NYPD.
“We are hopeful that the appointment of Jessica Tisch to NYPD Commissioner will bring wholesale change to a City agency that’s in urgent need of reform,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. “The NYPD’s relationship with the communities it polices remains fraught as ever. Since 2021, the Adams administration has attempted, through a variety of means, to systematically dismantle the mechanisms that hold police who commit misconduct to account, revived ineffective and discriminatory practices that criminalize poverty and freedom of expression, and centered a law enforcement response to community problems where one is wholly unnecessary.”
Legal Aid also took issue with Tisch’s past instituting new surveillance tech into the NYPD’s arsenal.
“The Legal Aid Society implores Commissioner Jessica Tisch to take these concerns and recommendations to heart, and we also urge her to immediately meet with community members to build real and meaningful pathways to input and accountability,” the organization said.
But Tisch’s appointment was also met with praise from lawmakers across the city.
"[Tisch] is a phenomenal choice for police commissioner and will be a steady hand during these turbulent times,” said Conservative Queens Councilmember Robert Holden. “I look forward to continuing our partnership to improve public safety in my district and ensuring the NYPD has the support it needs to keep our city safe."
Tisch will be officially sworn in as the city’s 47th police commissioner on Monday.
