Jessica Tisch appointed NYPD commissioner

Buried into a press briefing on routine, dry city budget modifications, New York City Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a surprise appointment, choosing Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch to lead the New York City Police Department. She’ll be the fourth person under Adams and the second woman to fill the role in the department’s history.

Tisch, who previously led IT at the NYPD, was one of several leaders – though one of just a few currently outside the NYPD – being looked at to replace former Commissioner Edward Caban, after Caban resigned in September in the wake of mounting federal scrutiny of the Adams administration, including Caban being visited by federal authorities and having his phone seized.

But by lumping the announcement onto the end of a press briefing on November budget modifications – the fiscal year 2025 budget is growing, adding new police cadets and funding for rental vouchers, by the way – Adams pulled some of the bright spotlight from the appointment. Adams and Tisch each made brief remarks but did not take questions after the announcement. Tisch will be formally sworn in on Monday, Adams said. Adams also did not announce who will take over the Department of Sanitation, on an interim or permanent basis.

At the budget briefing-turned-major appointment announcement, Tisch delivered a message to NYPD officers. “I want you to know that I believe very deeply in the nobility of police and the profession of policing,” she said. “It is now my pleasure to lead you, and I am looking forward to coming home.”

Tisch is taking over for department outsider Thomas Donlon, who Adams named as interim commissioner after Caban’s exit – and whose residences were also later searched by federal agents. Adams had said that Donlon was in the running to stay on as commissioner on a permanent basis, but selected Tisch instead.

For Adams, Tisch’s appointment is a return to his campaign promise that he would select a woman police commissioner. He first chose Keechant Sewell to helm the NYPD upon taking office, but after she stepped down in June 2023, his next two picks were both men.

New York City Council Member Shaun Abreu, who chairs the sanitation committee, praised Tisch’s appointment in a statement. “Her ability to confront sanitation issues with creativity and determination gives me great confidence that she will bring the same energy and excellence to the NYPD,” he said.

Tisch has garnered a fair amount of acclaim for her leadership at the Department of Sanitation since she was appointed in April 2022 – especially for her work to expand the city’s curbside compositing (though Adams’ budget cuts delayed the program), and implementation of new rules tied to curbside containers. She’s also been one of the prominent faces in the city’s war against rats.

Tisch is the daughter of James Tisch, who is the president and CEO of Loews Corp., and Merryl Tisch, chair of the SUNY board of trustees.

While Jessica Tisch has never been a police officer, she does have experience with the NYPD, starting her career with the department’s counterterrorism bureau after getting several degrees from Harvard University. She eventually became the police department’s deputy commissioner for information technology where she oversaw 911 operations, managed the implementation of the department’s body camera program and rolled out a program to equip officers with smartphones to help them access data while on the job. In 2019, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio named Tisch commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

“I need someone that’s going to take the police department into the next century,” Adams said of Tisch on Wednesday. “I need a visionary.”