NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams has appointed Jessica Tisch, the city’s Sanitation Commissioner, to lead the New York City Police Department after a tumultuous period that saw a commissioner, and his replacement, under investigation by the FBI.
It’s a non-traditional pick. Tisch was never a police officer and will be only the second-ever woman to serve as NYPD commissioner, after Keechant Sewell, who Adams appointed in 2022.
“I need someone who is going to take the police department into the next century,” Adams said, making the surprise announcement at what was supposed to be a staid budget briefing.
Tisch, who is relatively young for the job at 43, is not new to the NYPD. While she never served as a uniformed cop, she worked in a civilian role there for more than a decade, finishing her tenure as deputy commissioner of information technology.
Her selection ends months of speculation about who would permanently replace former commissioner Edward Caban, who was pushed out of the job amid a corruption probe. After Caban’s departure, Adams tapped Thomas Donlon, who previously oversaw the FBI’s national threat division, as his interim commissioner.
The shakeup at the nation’s largest police department began in early September, when officials with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan seized Caban’s phone as part of a corruption probe reportedly focused on a private security firm run by his brother. Roughly a week later, Caban resigned, pushed out by a City Hall that was reeling from a parade of negative headlines. To project a steady hand, Adams tapped Donlon, but federal agents soon descended on his home as well, seeking documents from his time in federal law enforcement.
Tisch, who has shepherded the city toward containerized garbage from her perch at Sanitation, is the scion of the billionaire family who own the Loews Corporation, a business conglomerate. Her mother, Merryl Tisch, was a top state education official, as the former chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, and still chairs the board of trustees of the State University of New York.
“Commissioner Tisch does not have to be in city government,” Adams said Wednesday, referring to her wealth. “She’s here because of the love of the city, coming from a family that has been committed and dedicated to the betterment of New York City, and using her experience and expertise to take us to the next level.”
Tisch will start leading the NYPD on Monday.
“I want to take a moment to speak directly to New Yorkers: I hear you loud and clear,” she said at the press briefing. “The mission is to keep you safe, make you feel safe and improve your quality of life.”
Her ascent will mark the end of Donlon’s brief, two-month tenure — though the former federal law enforcement official will remain in city government under Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker.
News of Tisch’s appointment drew mixed responses from unions representing rank-and-file officers.
“We are critically understaffed, massively overworked and completely unsupported by a justice system and an oversight regime that care more about punishing cops than helping us get dangerous criminals off the streets,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said in a statement. “We hope to partner with Commissioner Tisch to make real progress on these issues as quickly as possible.”
Scott Munro, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said his members were “elated by this choice.”
“We know we will work well with her. She understands the NYPD,” he said. “We can count on her.”
Before Tisch was tapped to lead the sanitation department, the Harvard Law School graduate served as commissioner for the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications under former Mayor Bill de Blasio — a background that made her ideally suited to Adams’ vision of the NYPD.
The mayor has prioritized using new technology in policing, including aerial drones, robot dogs and weapons scanners. He nodded to that in choosing a technology specialist as commissioner.
“I need a visionary,” Adams said. “I need the commissioner to move us into what modernized policing should look like, so we can not only help those who are here in New York City, but start helping those across the entire country.”