Five years ago, as a state assemblyman, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani called to defund the police. Today, he supports funding the department, but not expanding its ranks, putting himself at odds with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s repeated warnings.
“The reason I made the decision to retain commissioner Tisch is because of the importance of outcomes,” stated the 34-year-old New York City mayor-elect on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” “The fact that she has been able to deliver on rooting out corruption while lowering crime is something to be celebrated, and I think the commissioner and I have been very clear that what brings us together is a shared importance of public safety — I think we can do that with the officers we have.”
Tisch, however, argues the very outcomes Mamdani retained her for happened “against all odds.”
“The crime reductions we saw last year were achieved against all odds and are entirely attributable to the hard work and the grit of New York’s finest,” she said in a January press conference. “The deck has been completely stacked against our cops.”
Tisch points to low staffing levels and a justice system that “prioritizes offenders over victims,” making officers’ jobs far more difficult. Her plan to sustain the city’s gains emphasizes hiring more police and confronting what she calls “surging recidivism,” which is when repeat offenders cycle through the system.
Alongside Mayor Eric Adams in November, Tisch supported a plan to fund 5,000 additional New York Police Department officers with a goal of reaching a 40,000-member force by fiscal year 2029.
Mamdani insists the force should stay at 35,000.
Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday.
“I’ve said over the course of the campaign that I think the number we’ve had budgeted of 35,000 officers is a sufficient number,” he said. “What we have to do, however, is to allow those officers to focus on policing.”
Mamdani noted the New York Police Department responds to 200,000 mental health calls a year. He plans to build a Department of Community Safety and “task it with the mental health crisis, the homelessness crisis, and allow officers to focus on serious crimes…”
Tisch argues that lasting progress requires fixing legislation. “The key driving factor is the revolving door of our criminal justice system, created in large part by legislative changes that took effect in 2020.”
Tisch has repeatedly spotlighted high-profile cases of recidivism, including a career criminal who allegedly robbed a Queens deli at gunpoint before shooting a New York Police Department officer and an innocent bystander. The suspect had 17 prior arrests, many occurring while on lifetime parole.
“Imagine how disheartening it is for our cops to be out there arresting the same people for the same crimes in the same neighborhoods day after day,” the commissioner said.
The Trump administration backs Mamdani’s decision to keep Jessica Tisch as New York City’s police commissioner.
Trump’s National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett recently said, “We are really reassured that [Mamdani has] kept the police commissioner. In previous administrations in New York, we have seen law and order really go South.”
.png)
.png)
