Perhaps it's a little early to grade New York's top cop. Next week will mark Jessica Tisch's two-month anniversary in the role of commissioner. That said, the city is eager for good news on law and order, so forgive us for the early report card, Commish.
Tisch is Jewish, a Harvard graduate, and the daughter of billionaire James Tisch, CEO of the Loews Corporation (insurance, hotels, oil drilling/pipelines, and formerly, movie theaters). Her grand-uncle owns the New York Giants. Suffice it to say, she doesn't need a job in public service.
It’s easy to see why Jessie Tisch is a great pick for NYPD commissioner.
— City of New York (@nycgov) November 24, 2024
She’s smart, skilled and well-respected. pic.twitter.com/GeGhLveWBV
Tisch, the second woman to serve as head of the NYPD, served as Commissioner of of the NYC Dept. of Sanitation from 2022-24, Commissioner of the NYC Dept. of Information Technology and Telecommunications from 2019-22, and Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology at the NYPD from 2014-19. In other words, she came to her current role quickly but honestly.
By all accounts, Tisch is liked and respected. Further, she says all the right things. Tisch mirrors what Mayor Eric Adams is fond of saying, that recidivism is the key to stanching crime.
Worth reading @NYPDPC in today’s @nypost on NYC’s recidivism problem: “The time for band-aids and half measures is over, because the revolving door of the criminal justice system fails to put the rights and needs of victims first.” 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽https://t.co/ELwNysekqw
— Rafael A. Mangual (@Rafa_Mangual) January 8, 2025
A relatively small number of criminals account for vast swaths of crime in New York, and the woke bail and revolving-door sentencing laws championed by DA Alvin Bragg and AG Letitia James are failing the victims of crime in New York. We haven't heard Tisch call out Bragg and James by name yet.
Last week, Tisch penned an op-ed for the New York Post in which she shared data of recidivist crime in New York. It was a powerful example of the data the NYPD possesses to shame and ultimately eradicate the likes of Bragg and James.
Apparently, she is getting her department in order before entrenching herself in political battles.
NYPD Police Commissioner Tisch and her staff are doing an exhaustive review “to ensure no high ranking officers are using their power inappropriately “. Some on this list of transfers were recently on the “ Top 400 “ lists of overtime earners in the NYPD. pic.twitter.com/MT2jUx3oXm
— TheSalGreco (@TheSalGreco) December 21, 2024
So far, Tisch has focused on removing the rot of corruption and plain old laziness in the vast department. One good result so far: getting cops back on the streets. In the nineties, aughts, and 2010s, cops were everywhere. Tickets were handed out with mind-numbing frequency for minor traffic violations. Sketchy-looking citizens were stopped and frisked. Witnessing someone jumping a subway turnstile was a rarity.
Over the past several years, it has felt at times like beat cops have evaporated. You might walk thirty blocks in Manhattan and not see a cruiser, let alone an officer on foot. Tisch has addressed this sad state of affairs, recalling 500 officers from so-called "telephone transfer" roles.
New: A day after Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch replaces Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Tarik Sheppard, 11 cops in DCPI reassigned to patrol.
— Graham Rayman (@graham_rayman) December 21, 2024
Follows 10 cops moved out of the First Dep's office and Tisch's order rescinding "telephone transfers" for 500 cops.
But the biggest move so far has been addressing the tawdry sex-for-overtime scandal perpetrated by former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey.
Maddrey paid female officers in falsified overtime hours for sexual favors in his office. (Maddrey is a friend of Mayor Adams, a fact which casts even longer shadows on Adams' friendship with rap mogul Sean Combs.)
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So: not even two months on the job, and Tisch has been busy addressing corruption, removing suspect officers from higher posts, recalling officers to patrol, and finding time to write an article for the Post about recidivism.
Some of the challenges she faces:
Hopefully the 48th commissioner will stick around to see the job through. The last person to hold the job longer than three years was Ray Kelly, during his second appointment from 2000-14, under Michael Bloomberg.
Good luck, Commissioner. We wish you well in your fight to clean up your department while trying to make New York safe again.
Grade: A-/B+
