WHEN: Today, Thursday, April 16, 2026
WHERE: CNBC Changemakers Summit
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch that took place today, Thursday, April 16, during the CNBC Changemakers Summit in New York City.
Mandatory credit: CNBC Changemakers Summit
JULIA BOORSTIN: I am so thrilled to kick off today's summit with the 48th police commissioner of the NYPD. She was appointed at just 43 years old to oversee the largest police force in the U.S. with over 50,000 employees. With a Harvard J.D. and MBA, she has dedicated her life to public service. She's succeeded in the notoriously male-dominated departments, the male-dominated world of the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation. And she has reengineered these institutions with technology. And she has driven a meaningful decrease in crime in the city of New York. Please welcome to the stage New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
JESSICA TISCH: Thank you. Thank you so much.
BOORSTIN: Commissioner Tisch, thank you so much for being here.
TISCH: Thank you for having me.
BOORSTIN: So, you started your career in 2008 as an intelligence research office, specialist with the Counterintelligence, the Counterterrorism Bureau. Excuse me. Counterterrorism, you had gotten a J.D. and MBA. Why did you decide to get into this work?
TISCH: Oh, I wish I could tell you an honest story about a calling I had to work in public service, but that is not the case. I actually stumbled into my career in public service, which has truly been one of the great blessings of my life. Quite randomly, I graduated from law school and business school, and I'd done all the normal standard summer jobs that you do in law school and business school, and none of them really spoke to me. And so, the summer after I graduated, I randomly met someone who worked in counterterrorism in the NYPD, and they said, why don't you come work for me? And I was open to it. And it really has been one of the great joys and blessings of my life.
BOORSTIN: So one thing led to another. So glad you were open to that, that suggestion that day. And you have an incredibly tough job.
TISCH: I do.
BOORSTIN: It seems like everything, it seems like everything the NYPD faces is a crisis. And just two weeks after you started, you faced the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and then the ensuing manhunt for Luigi Mangione. I can only imagine what that was like. Did you feel prepared in that moment? And how do you balance the immediacy of that kind of crisis with also the need to do long-term planning?
TISCH: So, I did feel prepared largely because I had a team of chiefs, experienced police chiefs, working for me, who are just extraordinary at what they do. And my style is, I like to know what's going on. I like to give guidance and direction. I like to understand the details. But I also like to allow talented people to do their thing. And so that investigation was largely led by our great chief of detectives at the NYPD, who has over 30 years of experience investigating cases. And he would come to me, keep me informed. If there were key decisions that had to be made, we would discuss them, like, for example, when to put the picture of the person we were looking for out, whether or not to bring our intelligence analysts in to help with trying to identify the person we were looking for. But that's my style. So I felt pretty comfortable. I did feel pressure, given that it was my second week on the job, to find this person. And it was quite high-profile. But, generally, this job, to answer your second question, is about balancing real-time need to respond to tactical things, be they emergencies or crises or whatever the issue of the day is, with long-term or more strategic planning. And I think that that's the balance that every real leader has to strike. In my job, it just feels much more obvious and public.
BOORSTIN: Very public. Another theme of your career has been technology. And from the time you worked in counterterrorism, you were really interested in utilizing the latest technologies. Now I have a question about another balance, the balance of modernizing with the latest systems and the benefits from that and deploying these technologies that can keep people safe with concerns about privacy.
TISCH: Yes. I am known in the government as a modernizer. I do not accept the status quo just because it is the status quo. In fact, oftentimes, I reject it if that status quo doesn't best serve New Yorkers. And, in government, but I would assume in lots of other industries, there is always a, or there is often the inclination to rest on or rely on what you know, even if you know what isn't what you need. And I think that that problem is more profound in government, where there is less competition. So, I really started my career by trying to modernize the New York City Police Department, which at the time was basically, as far as tech was concerned, in the Stone Ages. This was, like, in like 2010. Your average police officer in New York City didn't have a phone, didn't have an e-mail address. Like, none of the basic tools even that me and you use to do our jobs day in and day out were available to our cops. But you are correct that, as technology goes, in particular in policing, you have to be very thoughtful about other equities. And among them, quite obviously, is privacy. And so what we do, my approach to developing technology in government, but specifically for policing, is not to think about privacy concerns as an afterthought. Privacy needs to be accounted for and addressed when you are still conceiving of the idea or the tool that you want to build. And those protections or that policy, whatever it's going to be, have to be built into the tool. So, for example, we built like a ring of steel around New York City, cameras, license plate readers, radiation sensors, gunshot alarms. And before we even started building and developing, before the first camera went up, we had put in place a policy that said, for example, most obvious, we are going to delete all video within 30 days unless there is a specific law enforcement or public safety need to keep it longer. And that type of thing is built into the system.
BOORSTIN: So how do you keep up on the latest technology? Because I feel like, every day, there's a new headline about new A.I. tools, but also cybersecurity risks and the risks that come with A.I. How are you watching and determining what to implement next?
TISCH: So, I have to say I have always been blessed by working with a team of people who are quite gifted and talented at what they do. I like to joke with my chief of staff that, if ever I leave government service, I am going to open a talent agency. Because I really have an eye for spotting talent. And our tech team at the NYPD is always looking at the latest and greatest, not usually in policing, because, oftentimes, the NYPD is the largest police agency in the country. We're usually ahead of all other policing agencies. But we look at what private businesses are doing, we look at what is emerging, and then we figure out, how can we incorporate that into our operations?
BOORSTIN: And so, throughout all of this, you have built this team. You mentioned how good you are at identifying talent.
TISCH: I think.
BOORSTIN: But you also have been much younger than a lot of the people reporting up to you. And you have a reputation for having a very commanding presence, and for having this presence for years. It seems like you have always had this commanding presence. How did you develop that presence? And was it hard to earn the respect of sometimes that decades-older police commissioner, police chiefs who were reporting to you?
TISCH: I think that, if you think that I have a commanding presence, that that is probably largely drawn from confidence and experience. I have dedicated my professional life to the city of New York. I have woken up every day for the past 18-plus years really with like one thought, which is, how can I serve the 8.5 million people New York City today? And because I have been doing it so long at different agencies for a very long time at the police department -- I left. I ran technology for the city during COVID. I ran the Sanitation Department. And now here I am back at the police department. I do the work. I get into the weeds. When I speak publicly, I know what I'm talking about. And the other thing is, I like to be, my brand is to be open and honest and transparent. Frankly, would I like people to like me? Sure. But I care much more that they trust that the words that are going to come out of my mouth are going to be honest and direct, that I'm not going to be spending my time figuring out how to hide this part of the story or how to leave that detail. So, when you are able to be transparent about what it is that you're communicating, I think it's, like, quite easy to develop a commanding presence.
BOORSTIN: Very, very good point, I'm sure for many of the women leaders in this room. There's a lot of data about how female leaders draw more scrutiny because they are rare. You have the addition of a famous last name and an incredibly public role in the city and, frankly, around the world. What is your advice to women leaders in this room who feel like they're maybe under a microscope?
TISCH: Don't think about it. Thank you. My last name, the fact that I'm a woman, the fact that I am a civilian, i.e., never a uniformed police officer, never a uniformed sanitation worker, never really an I.T. worker, that, I have never allowed to get into my consciousness. The way I have always approached those things is to be deeply respectful of the people that I lead, respectful of their expertise, respectful of their experience, particularly in policing, respectful of oh, my microphone is going out. Respectful of their nobility. And so that has generally been my approach.
BOORSTIN: Another element of your job that is under scrutiny is the way you navigate different mayoral administrations. And there is a lot of – everyone in this room has had to be agile.
TISCH: Oh, I'm on my fourth.
BOORSTIN: Yes. So what's the secret to that? What is the secret to the agility of moving between administrations for you, as everyone in here thinks about navigating different business worlds?
TISCH: So, again, it's very much like my approach to talking to the public, being open, being transparent. Certainly, in the first few months, it's, some of it is teaching, right? When a new mayor comes in, there is a wild information asymmetry. The people in the agency know a lot, and the new mayor and his team or her team need to be brought up to speed. So I go into transitions thinking about how we are going to transfer knowledge, how we're going to get everyone up to speed. And I usually set a goal for myself of, I want within the first quarter for the new team that is coming in to have a good sense of the thorny issues or the very important issues that we are facing. And then the other part of it is for me and my team to learn the new mayor and their team, what are their priorities, etc.
BOORSTIN: And there are thorny issues, I'm sure. You have to make a lot of tough decisions all the time, every day, I would expect, and a lot of unpopular decisions, one of which was cracking down on overtime. As you look at your portfolio of choices to make, how do you figure out what to prioritize and also how to execute without massive backlash?
TISCH: Not based on what's popular either internally or publicly, but what is right for the 8.5 million New Yorkers, what will best serve them. And that has largely guided my decisions in government. And if you think that I have had a successful career in government, I attribute a lot of it to that. I don't worry about, too much about politics or publicity. I want to do the right thing by the people that I serve.
BOORSTIN: I want to end with a little bit about the world that we're living in right now, which is a tough one. And we have seen a rise of antisemitic attacks in particular. You are Jewish, as am I. You have two kids. You keep your public, your public life and your private life very separate.
TISCH: Very.
BOORSTIN: But I'm curious, as a mom, how you manage that stress and that division between your job and the reality of raising kids in this city.
TISCH: My kids have actually been quite good about their mother all of a sudden being away every night and working on the weekends. And bless them. They have helped make the transition into this job much more manageable for me. The question that you asked about antisemitism, it is true that Jewish New Yorkers make up less than 10 percent of the population of the city, but account for over 50 percent of all hate crimes recorded in New York City. I want to say that that is not something new. That has been the case for quite a number of years. It was definitely exacerbated after October 7, when we saw a huge spike in antisemitic hate crimes. I am a person who does not walk around the city or the world worried about myself or my children or my parents or my loved ones being the victims of crime. I know it's possible. Anyone can be the victim of crime, but that is not how I choose to use my worry. I worry a lot, but not about that.
BOORSTIN: Well, that is good to hear. You have also raised worries, though, about the threats facing the city.
TISCH: Yes.
BOORSTIN: And you have said: "The city is on heightened terror alert for the foreseeable future."
TISCH: Yes.
BOORSTIN: I believe you made that comment very recently. What would you like the leaders in this room to know, many of whom live, run companies in New York, that they may not?
TISCH: So, that is the case. We have been, in New York City, on a heightened terror alert really since right after October 7. The risks went up. About a month ago, when Epic Fury started in the Middle East, that threat went up even higher, because, all of a sudden, we were seeing something we didn't expect, which was a lot of lone wolf, lone wolves inspired by ISIS, which has nothing to do with Iran. It woke them up. We worry about threats from people inspired by Hezbollah. We are now worried about proxy attacks. What I will say is, this is, I have been in and around counterterrorism in New York City for quite some time, and this is one of the most complicated threat environments that I have seen in my career. I don't want to end on a downer, though. I will also tell you that New York City has the most extraordinary municipal counterterrorism capacity in the world. The different layers that we take to keeping this city safe, whether it's our investigative work, thwarting plots, whether it's our heavy weapons deployments that serve as a deterrent, whether it's our sensor network around the city, New York City develop, devotes an extremely high amount of resources to counterterrorism. And that will never change under my watch.
BOORSTIN: You have accomplished so much in your years as mayor. What are the—
TISCH: Police commissioner.
BOORSTIN: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, as police commissioner. Oh, my God—
TISCH: Freudian slip.
BOORSTIN: Sorry. Freudian slip. Freudian slip. Excuse me. You have accomplished so much in your years as police commissioner. What is preventing you from accomplishing even more? Is there anything that the business leaders in this room could help you with?
TISCH: No, when I started as police commissioner, I, this is my approach generally. What are the problems, and can I develop strategies to address those problems? So, when I started, people were very upset about a rise in crime in New York City. And I thought, all right, there are a few types of crimes that make people very afraid, I mean, all crime, but, like, some particularly. People really were upset about what was going on in the subway, they were upset about retail theft, and they were upset about skyrocketing number of shootings in New York City. So we developed plans to address each of those things. And I am very proud to say, on subway crime, our strategy worked. Last year was the safest year in the New York City subway system since 2009, if you exclude the pandemic years. Shootings last year and continuing this year are at record low levels. We didn't just beat the record. We crushed it. And retail theft, a very visible sign of chaos and disorder in a city, seeing all of these mom-and-pop pharmacies close. And seeing toilet paper and everything, toothpaste behind glass, that's very upsetting. Our strategy worked. Last year, retail theft was down 14 percent. This year, so far, we're down over 20 percent. And so my plan is to continue to identify the problems that are troubling New Yorkers the most and developing effective strategies to address them.
BOORSTIN: Well, we will end on that note. And I will say I apologize for the Freudian slip, but many people, especially those in this room, will say that your role is the most important, for so many reasons, for people in the city.
TISCH: Thank you.
BOORSTIN: So, Police Commissioner Tisch, thank you so much for joining us.
TISCH: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
BOORSTIN: Thank you. I really appreciate it. Huge thanks to the police commissioner for making time for us in her busy schedule.