Should Zohran Actually Keep Tisch?

Pondering the future of the NYPD

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has said he would retain Jessica Tisch, who was appointed last year by Mayor Eric Adams, as his police commissioner. Tisch is a favorite of the business class, the New York Post editorial board, and a number of prominent Democrats. Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg are Tisch boosters, since she served in both of their administrations. As Mamdani’s many conservative and centrist critics lashed him throughout the year, he offered what amounted to a sizable olive branch: confirming, during a televised debate and in subsequent interviews, Tisch would be his choice to lead the NYPD. There was much logic to this; Mamdani had to pivot to the center and placate restive moderates. Tisch is a Harvard-educated billionaire with no experience as an actual police officer, but she’s a well-regarded bureaucrat who seems dedicated, at the very minimum, to purging corrupt officials at the upper ranks of the NYPD. After years of scandal under Adams, Tisch is attempting some version of reform. For that, she’s won great plaudits in the press and put genuine pressure on Mamdani to keep her.

Now that he’s won, will she stay? Tisch is far more conservative than Mamdani. She’s a fierce critic of the partial end of cash bail, the reform of discovery laws, and the raising of the age of criminal responsibility. If she’s soft-spoken, she sounds no different than a Long Island Republican when it comes to the topic of criminal justice. There’s also Israel: Tisch, who is Jewish, is a proud Zionist, while Mamdani, who once managed my campaign for State Senate, is pro-Palestine. It’s hard to see, truly, how long the Mamdani-Tisch relationship can last. If history is any indication, they’ll have at least two years: that’s how long de Blasio, a progressive Democrat, was able to hold onto Bill Bratton, who had been Rudy Giuliani police commissioner and returned for a second tour of duty in the first de Blasio term.

If the choice to keep Tisch seemed to offer more pros than cons for Mamdani, a political maneuver by Adams in the final weeks of the campaign gave the con side plenty of fresh fodder. Mamdani will have a good deal of hard thinking to do now.