I reformed the NYPD. But can Jessica Tish work with Zahran Mamdani?
While taking a walk through Queens with a city council member in 2022, Jessica Tisch noticed an abundance of trash littering traffic islands, graded streets and greenways.
Ms. Tisch, who has just begun her term as the city’s sanitation commissioner, wondered why waste was littered in these areas specifically. The reason was infuriating. The City Council passed a rule in 1983 that gave each agency responsibility for maintaining its own property, which led to waste accumulating on off-limits lands.
So Ms. Tisch convinced Mayor Eric Adams to allocate $14 million for a new unit that would regularly remove waste from those 1,700 sites.
Why did we write this?
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has won plaudits for modernizing the agency and rooting out corruption. But she and Zahran Mamdani, the front-runner for mayor, have different views on what causes violent crime and how to address it.
“If you live in one of these neighborhoods, you see this waste every day and you think no one cares about it,” says Joshua Goodman, a Sanitation Department spokesman. “The one thing Jessie won’t accept is: ‘This is the way it is.'”
The superintendent and scion of one of New York’s most powerful families quickly rose through the city’s bureaucracy to lead the nation’s largest police department last year, a position she described as… Her dream jobdespite never serving as a uniformed officer. Ms. Tisch’s relentless drive to modernize the NYPD and other agencies has drawn praise from former New York mayors and police commissioners across multiple departments.
It may not be easy to win over its next president.
With the New York mayoral election just two weeks away, and Mayor Adams Out of the raceMs. Tisch may soon find herself answering to Zahran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has criticized the entrenched authority of the police department. The Privy Councilor, who is leading by a large margin in the opinion polls, got it I apologize to Past comments He described the NYPD as “racist” and “A major threat to public safety“, and worked to reassure voters that It is no longer supported “Defund” the police. But he also campaigned for a new party an agency It would deploy mental health teams instead of police to respond to 911 calls.
He and Mrs. Tish looked at each other with wary respect. Mr. Mamdani praised Ms. Tesh’s efforts in this regard Reduce shooting and Execution of corrupt officers Which Mr. Adams, a former policeman, placed in high-ranking positions.
It still is Did not commit To keep her as commissioner, though pressure From the allies. Ms. Tesh and Mr. Mamdani expressed sharply different views on the causes of violent crime and the best strategies for addressing it.
If she leaves the country and crime rates rise, within four years Mamdani could find himself facing a political rival It is already being promoted By some as Mayor of Hope. If he reappoints her but cuts police funding and reorganizes the agency, Ms. Tisch may face a difficult decision.
“Jesse has many great career options, but she is on an assignment with the NYPD that I think requires a few more years on the job,” says Cathy Wild, president and CEO of the New York City Partnership. “It can work with anyone.”
“Tough boss”
Ms. Tish was born into a family of corporate titans and philanthropists. Her grandfather, Lawrence, co-owned Loews Corp., a hospitality and insurance conglomerate. Her father, James Love, led for 48 years before stepping down in January. But it was her mother, Meryl, chair of the SUNY Board of Trustees and former chancellor of the Board of Regents, who instilled in her the virtues of civic leadership.
“People ask me why I’m so driven,” Ms. Tish said He told New York magazine. “My mother is definitely a role model for me.” (The NYPD declined to make Ms. Tisch available for an interview.)
She grew up with two younger brothers in Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side, and attended Harvard University, where she won an award National Championship On the crew as a skipper and earned degrees in law and business.
Although it is Detainee At a law firm and the White House while in school, it was only after a friend urged her to apply for a job as a counterterrorism analyst with the NYPD in 2008 that she considered a career in public service.
Ms. Tisch found that she excelled in the finer details of securing sensitive sites and thwarting attacks. In 2014, she was promoted to Deputy Commissioner for Innovation and Technology.
“She can be a strong boss and not suffer fools lightly,” says former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. But it also “leads in a way [where] People…have the opportunity to have their voice heard.
In December 2019, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Ms. Tisch to lead the city’s technology office. During the pandemic, she built a contact tracing system from scratch, then managed the distribution system that gets COVID-19 vaccines to patients. 90% Residents of the city.
When Mr. Adams asked her which agency she wanted to run, Ms. Tisch chose sanitation. There she sought to tame the city High number of micelaunched citywide Curbside composting programunveiling a plan that requires Durable plastic trash cans For residential buildings.
It also made lesser-known changes that had major impacts. I asked senior sanitation leaders to review the data weekly, which reduced missing collections to nearly zero. Instead of focusing on the amount of waste collected by garbage trucks, it prioritized a different metric: how long it lingers on curbs.
“The efficiency measure was important, but the point of the data was to improve quality of life,” says Mr. Goodman, the sanitation spokesman.
Sanitation was a bright spot in an Adams administration that was riddled with problems Accusations of corruption and Chaos -And no agency exemplifies the dysfunction more than the Police Department. Complaints of misconduct jump to their highest level since 2014, including among Mr. Adams’ handpicked deputies, as officers retired In large numbers.
After the third police commissioner in three years to resign Last October, Mr. Adams approached Ms. Tish Driving Section. She quickly Deposed Dozens of leaders, including two senior Home Affairs officials, cut the size of the ministry in half 87 people Press office, and began to repair it Disciplinary process.
Since then, Ms. Tisch has masterfully managed several high-profile cases, including the manhunt after the assassination of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. She was also credited with helping He convinces The Trump administration will not send the National Guard to New York.
Ha Targeted publishing The arrival of officers in areas with high crime rates has already had an impact. The city has seen seven consecutive quarters of decline in major crimes, with Fewest reported shootings Registered for the first nine months of any year.
“She knows when to be in front of the cameras and when to disengage,” says political consultant Neil Kwatra. “This is a rare skill in politics.” “She far exceeded any perception that she was in her job because of her name. She did an amazing job.”
Affordability is related to superior crime
This is due in part to Ms. Tisch’s efforts, and concerns for public safety Did not dominate This year’s mayoral campaign, in contrast Four years ago.
That allowed Mr. Mamdani to gain more attention for his message of tackling the city’s affordability crisis, as he won the Democratic primary last June.
Ms. Tisch has avoided commenting directly on the race, but she did He noted in the private sector She wants to continue in her role next year. In meetings with Mr. Mamdani this summer, business leaders and government officials urged him to keep it.
“Keeping it would immunize the next mayor against any accusation that he would be soft on crime,” Ms. Wilde says.
On Sunday, Mr. Mamdani’s rival, Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, said he would do so Keep Mrs. Tish on If he is elected.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards says the first question Mr. Mamdani asked him at the Astoria meeting two weeks after the June primary was whether he should keep it.
“It’s a lot more realistic than I thought,” says Mr. Richards, who hopes Ms. Tisch will remain in her position. “Public safety should be a top priority, especially under a progressive administration. People are looking for stability.”
But Mr. Mamdani’s progressive allies may want him to go in a different direction. When Mrs. Tish He said Citizens Budget Commission last month that crime has risen in the years following the pandemic due to criminal justice reforms undertaken by the Legislature, an Assembly member said. chirp“It is strange that the heiress to one of the richest families in the city does not seem to understand the sociology of social insecurity and its connection to crime.” (Mr. Mamdani He responded By noting similar high crime rates across the country.)
Mr. Bratton says Mr. Mamdani will not be able to find anyone who can rival Ms. Tisch’s experience and expertise. But the former police commissioner recently said in A Podcast interview That he would advise her not to stay in the Mamdani administration.
“My suggestion is to think long and hard,” Mr. Bratton tells Al-Monitor. “Right now, you are well regarded by the public. You don’t want to squander that in the first months of the new administration.”
No matter what she decides, he expects she will not be intimidated by the new genius in the Democratic Party.
“Jessie loves a challenge,” he says. “You can’t be police commissioner if you’re not someone… interested in taking on that challenge.”