New York’s New Top Cop

This afternoon, at an unusually crowded news conference - with more reporters present than at the Mayor’s earlier NYPD press conference - NewYork City’s new “top cop”, Jessica Tisch, spoke to the assembled scriveners without notes and nor fanfare: “I am a substantive person, and I care less about the palace intrigue and more about the substance of the work…and the safety of all New Yorkers”. To wit: Tisch is an honors graduate of the Harvard Business School and a member of the prominent and philanthropic Tisch hotel and tobacco family.

 Tisch is the second woman to hold the Commissioner’s post; she previously served as chief of the City’s Sanitation Department, and before that as a civilian NYPD veteran. While there had been hints of Tisch’s ascendancy when the former, and embattled commissioner Edward Caban resigned his position in September, Mayor Adams surprised most City Hall onlookers by appointing Tisch to the job. 

Adams was clear and firm when stating: “I need someone who can take this (police) department into the next century”. The newly named 43 year old commissioner then loudly praised the “nobility” of New York’s blue wave, and added: “I love working with cops … they run to the danger when others run away”. Commissioner Tisch’s first day will be this coming Monday; might we see her marching later in the week at Macy’s fabled Thanksgiving Day parade?

Mayor Eric Adams and Jessica Tisch, November 20, 2024. (Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)