The post-election query on everybody’s lips has lastly been answered: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch will stay in her function when Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes workplace Jan. 1.
Tisch’s reappointment is a aid for the tens of millions of New Yorkers involved that Mamdani has not shed his previous “defund the police” concepts.
On her watch, crime has come down for the primary time in years.
However Tisch’s acceptance of the job is the start, not the top, of her potential conflicts with Mamdani.
The mayor-elect and the commissioner will likely quickly conflict on myriad points — and Tisch is probably not lengthy for the publish in any case.
The very first thing to acknowledge about Tisch’s determination is that it confirms what we already knew: She’s a consummate civil servant, devoted before everything to the great of her metropolis.
Her profession is an affidavit to that truth: Regardless of coming from wealth, she labored her manner up by way of the NYPD ranks.
She then took the unglamorous job of Mayor Eric Adams’ sanitation commissioner.
In that function, she managed to get New Yorkers to begin placing their trash in bins — one thing the town has struggled with for many years.
As NYPD commissioner, she has been a stalwart defender of her officers, and of the crime discount methods which have confirmed again and again to maintain New York secure.
She additionally introduced integrity and character to an administration that appeared in any other case to go from scandal to scandal.
Learn on this mild, her alternative to remain on at NYPD makes good sense.
It’s an extension of her dedication to serving the town, even when it means working with folks she disagrees with.
Sadly, a type of folks is the soon-to-be mayor.
And there will likely be plenty of alternatives for the 2 to conflict.
Mamdani desires to eliminate the town’s gang database and the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group — each instruments which can be central to the focused, targeted strategy to policing that has been a trademark of Tisch’s tenure.
Mamdani has stated he received’t attempt to enhance the NYPD’s sworn headcount.
With the pressure now dropping 300 officers a month, meaning nearly sure attrition — placing Tisch as commissioner on a worse footing, with fewer officers to deploy.
Mamdani desires to maneuver some policing capabilities underneath his new Division of Neighborhood Security.
Even when most of these capabilities are minor, it can imply one other voice pushing Mamdani on public security, probably diluting the commissioner’s sway.
And conflicts not but foreseen are nearly inevitable.
Think about, for instance, if an NYPD officer kills a civilian in a contestable officer-involved taking pictures.
Will Tisch and Mamdani see eye-to-eye on such a state of affairs — or will they take reverse sides at an emotionally fraught second?
Briefly: Whereas Tisch could have signed on, that doesn’t imply Mamdani sees the world her manner.
And within the first few months of his administration, there will likely be many alternatives for us to see in the event that they’re on the identical web page, or in the event that they’ll be repeatedly butting heads.
In fact, it’s attainable for a progressive mayor to work with a tough-on-crime commissioner — Invoice de Blasio famously introduced Invoice Bratton again throughout his mayoralty.
However Mamdani’s asks of the NYPD are extra excessive than de Blasio’s have been.
And de Blasio’s tenure was infamously marred by poor relations with the NYPD, embodied by the lots of of officers who turned their backs on the mayor as he spoke on the funerals of slain officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
Extra regarding to these of us who help Tisch’s manner of doing issues is the chance that her appointment is short-term.
The announcement is a part of Mamdani’s marketing campaign to look extra reasonable than his radical historical past implies.
However a conflict between the mayor and the commissioner might lead to Tisch’s resignation — or in Mamdani’s firing her.
That may then give him carte blanche to say, “I attempted!” and appoint somebody nearer to his personal ideological predilections.
In different phrases, whereas New Yorkers needs to be glad that Tisch is within the room with their incoming mayor, they shouldn’t take Wednesday’s announcement as a definitive signal that Mamdani has modified his spots.
It’s one factor to do what dozens of metropolis leaders have urged and preserve Tisch on.
It’s one other factor totally to really pay attention to her.
Nonetheless, if Tisch does should stroll, it could be to her long-term benefit.
She will be able to show her civil-servant bona fides but once more, however keep away from the mess a Mamdani administration will nearly definitely carry.
Charles Fain Lehman is a Manhattan Institute fellow and senior editor of Metropolis Journal.
