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Jessica Tisch becomes New York City's top cop: 'Great for the city'
NEW YORK (PIX11) --- Jessica Tisch took over as New York City's top cop and inherited a police department with several challenges.
Tisch was sworn in as the 48th NYPD commissioner during a ceremony at One Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan Monday morning. She is the second woman in the city's history to hold the position after Keechant Sewell.
Tisch was surrounded by her mother and two young sons, Harry, 9, and Larry, 13, while holding her grandparents' Bible during the swearing-in ceremony.
"As I was coming up in the department, there were four women who served as role models. These three-star chiefs took a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling at the New York City Police Department. I promise to do for other women in this department what you did for me," Tisch said.
The commissioner has not picked a new staff yet and is still getting settled into her 14th-floor office at police headquarters.
Former NYPD Commissioners Dermot Shea and Bill Bratton attended the ceremony in support of Tisch, saying she would be up for the job despite not wearing a police uniform.
"I think she's going to be great for the city," Shea said. "She is going to wrap her arms around public safety and improve morale."
Bratton believes her biggest challenges will be the size of the department, which is too small despite the additional hires, politics around criminal justice reform, and regaining the public's trust.
"We've lost a lot of that over the last four or five years and I think she has the capability to regain the trust of the public," Bratton said.
Tisch spent 12 years in the department. She was with the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau as a planning and policy director after 9/11.
Then, as the deputy commissioner for NYPD Information Technology, Tisch launched body cameras and smartphones. She also introduced a gunshot-detection system and worked with the city’s transit agency to make police radios work in the subway.
She was appointed DSNY commissioner in April 2022 and is behind the “Trash Revolution,” mandating that 70% of the city’s garbage be placed in containers to control the rat problem.
"I needed a battle-tested leader," Mayor Eric Adams said. "I need someone who is going to take the police department into the next century. I need a visionary. I need a person who can look at how we do everyday operations, and do what she has done over at the Department of Sanitation and other fields where she has provided service."
Tom Donlon, who was the interim NYPD commissioner, will stay in Adams' administration as the deputy mayor of public safety. Donlon agreed to temporarily fill in after Edward Caban stepped down amid federal investigations.