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By Mandy Taheri
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New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica Tisch called out the legal system for declining prosecution rates of offenders and pushed for more cops to join the force and patrol during her first "State of the NYPD" address on Thursday.
Newsweek has reached out to the NYPD public officer for comment via email on Thursday.
Why It Matters
The address is an annual speech providing an overview of the current state of crime, the department's performance, and the force's future.
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Tisch, NYPD commissioner, came out tough on repeat crime despite announcing lower crime rates and advocated for more cops in the force and on the streets. Following the murder of George Floyd, there have been repeated calls to "defund the police," primarily from Democrats in large cities.
Who Is the NYPD Commissioner?
Tisch, 43, was appointed as NYPD commissioner by New York City Mayor Eric Adams in late November. She previously served as the city's sanitation chief.
Tisch, who has never served as a police officer, worked in a civil role within the department for over a decade. She will be the second-ever woman to serve as the NYPD commissioner.
Her father, James Tisch, has been the chief executive officer of Loews Co since 1999. The billionaire also sits on the board of directors of the New York Public Library and The Jewish Agency, among others.
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Crime Reduction In the City And Declining Prosecution Rates
In her address, Tisch largely credited the city's lower crime rates to a shift from precinct-level policing to smaller "zones." She described it as a "hyper-local, data-driven" approach and a "focused, location-based scalpel" for crime.
However, despite the decline in crime—which she reported as declines in every borough with reductions in murder, robbery, grand larceny, and auto theft, as well as shooting incidents down more than 28 percent—she came out strong against repeat offenders, saying: "We know we could be doing so much more, and we know what's standing in our way: it's surging recidivism."
She called out 2020 criminal justice law reforms that she said created a "revolving door that put repeat offenders back on our streets again and again and again. The system is unsustainable, it defies common sense—and it is crying out for a course correction."
Citing stats, she noted that in 2024, in comparison with 2018, there was an "unacceptable surge in the number of individuals arrested three or more times for the same crime in the same year. The increase was 61 percent for burglary, 64 percent for shoplifting, 71 percent for grand larceny, 83 percent for robbery, and 119 percent for auto theft. And when we look at felony assault—an index crime that was up in 2024—the increase was a staggering 147 percent."
She also noted that for misdemeanor crimes, "the rates of decline to prosecute were up 31 percent, while the rates of bail set were down 54 percent," in 2024 compared to 2018.
Tisch said she is pushing for changes to "discovery law that will remove onerous restrictions and irrelevant technicalities that cause far too many cases to be needlessly dismissed—and allow dangerous offenders to avoid accountability under the law." In addition she has spoken with district attorneys, informing them that "their declined prosecution rates, in particular for misdemeanor offenses, are unacceptable."
A Push For More Cops In the Force and On the Streets
Throughout her speech, Tisch pushed for hundreds of officers to leave their desks and patrol the streets and subways.
She also noted that she wants an increase in police force hiring to get numbers back up to 35,000 officers.
She said that rhetoric around "defund the police" movement "is vile, and the pendulum has swung too far away from what I consider to be the most important and noble job anyone could do. And we need to swing it back," adding that "more cops on patrol make our city safer."
Many critics of the police establishment argue that adding more officers does not increase safety but instead creates unsafe environments where police violence can occur. Most incidents of police brutality and violence disproportionately affect racial minorities.
What People Are Saying
Ash J, who has over 19,500 followers on X, formerly Twitter, wrote in a social media post on January 12: "Jessica Tisch is a billionaire heiress & nepo baby. She herself is an embodiment of corruption & plutocracy. Plus, depending on NYPD cops to investigate & crackdown on corruption among their fellow cops is just absurd on its face."
New York Mayor Eric Adams wrote on X Thursday: "There is no harder working police force in our country than our @NYPDnews! Proud to join @NYPDPC Tisch and our brothers and sisters in New York's Finest for today's "State of the NYPD," where the commissioner laid out our vision to make the five boroughs even safer."
What Happens Next
Tisch is entering her third month on the job. Yesterday she swore in a class of 1,000 recruits to join the force.
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