Jessica Tisch Is Sworn In as N.Y.P.D. Commissioner
The New York Times
Commissioner Tisch is the fourth person to hold the role during the Adams administration, and the department’s second-ever female leader.
Jessica Tisch was sworn in on Monday as the 48th commissioner of the Police Department as Mayor Eric Adams pushed back against criticism about a manager who has never walked a police beat leading a department of more than 34,000 officers.
“She can wear any uniform she wants and accomplish the task,” Mr. Adams said of Commissioner Tisch, who will be the fourth person to run the department during his administration. He added, “She is a well battle-tested leader.”
The commissioner, a 43-year-old Harvard Law School graduate who until last week was head of the city’s Sanitation Department, is the Police Department’s second female leader. During a brief ceremony at 1 Police Plaza, she promised to restore pride to an agency that has been rattled by scandal and uncertainty.
Observers said Commissioner Tisch, a former Police Department deputy commissioner, is facing a rash of daunting problems — low morale and overworked officers; demands from civil libertarians and progressive groups that the police be held more accountable for abuses; and worries from New Yorkers about public safety even as the overall crime rate has inched down in recent years.
On Monday, Commissioner Tisch gave no indication of how she would address these problems.
Nor did she address the scandal that has engulfed the department, which saw the resignation of Edward Caban as commissioner in September, after his phone was seized as part of a federal inquiry that has consumed Mr. Adams’s administration. Thomas Donlon, a former F.B.I. agent who most recently ran a private security firm, was sworn in as interim commissioner on Sept. 13.
