Why Mayor Mamdani Can't Quit NYPD Commissioner Tisch

Since Zohran Mamdani announced in November that he planned to keep NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on as his police commissioner, she has resisted his agenda. She declined to make good on the mayor's campaign promises to dismantle the Strategic Response Group or defang the NYPD's controversial gang database. Mamdani's campaign vision for a total overhaul to public safety, moving many social services responsibilities away from police with a so-called Department of Community Safety, has not materialized. Low level arrests for things like fare evasion have continued apace, if not increased. 

Despite these betrayals of his progressive base, the mayor has very little incentive to change the leadership of the NYPD, because he's getting exactly what he needs from Tisch, and he has repeatedly said as much.

Asked last week to respond to criminal justice reform advocates' concerns about Tisch, and whether he was "confident that she is executing your vision for policing in New York City," the mayor, who once called the NYPD "racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety," did not hesitate. "Yes," he said. "I would not have someone serving our City if I was not confident in what they were doing."

But despite the mayor's repeated comments to the contrary, speculation about Mamdani and Tisch's impending break-up has abounded since before he took office, as has chatter about who might replace her. Earlier this month, the former cop hosts at the "NEW YORK'S FINEST: RETIRED AND UNFILTERED PODCAST" floated a Labor Day sunset for Tisch. Writers in left-wing publications have also recently bemoaned her leadership and insisted she be replaced. 

No one can say how long Tisch is sticking around, except for maybe Tisch and the mayor. But here's why Mamdani is not rushing to part with his police commissioner.