Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s 17 years in public service went out the window a few month and a half into her new gig because the boss of the NYPD.
It was the day after police say a maniac recidivist fatally stabbed 14-year-old Caleb Rijos as he walked to high school within the Bronx, and Tisch was on the telephone with the boy’s mother, consoling her as a commissioner — and a mom.
“It was one of the painful experiences of my life,” Tisch, 43, who has a son across the identical age as Caleb, informed The Put up Friday in an interview in her 14th-floor workplace at One Police Plaza.
“It’s a tragedy for his household. It’s a tragedy for town,” she stated of the Jan. 10 horror. “The person who stabbed him mustn’t have been out on our streets. That household is shattered.”
Tisch was already having “recidivist of the day” conversations along with her prime chiefs throughout day by day conferences to strive to determine easy methods to get repeat offenders off the road, she stated.
Walter Mejia, 29, who allegedly stabbed Caleb, was beforehand arrested at the least 5 instances, for arson, housebreaking, possession of a knife, possession of a loaded 9mm gun, felony mischief and harassment as lately as November.
Caleb’s homicide introduced the issue residence for her — and strengthened her resolve.
“One thing’s received to offer on this felony justice system,” Tisch stated.
“Felonies are trending downward, which is fantastic, however we have now an issue with surging recidivism. The identical individuals are committing the identical crimes in the identical neighborhoods.”
Tisch plans to journey to Albany to speak to legislators about altering among the felony justice reform legal guidelines which have created a revolving-door system in Gotham, she informed The Put up.
“We’re seeing too many circumstances die on the vine due to a discovery error or discovery downside that’s utterly irrelevant to the end result of the case,” she stated.
Discovery legal guidelines impose a burden on prosecutors to show over voluminous quantities of proof to the protection in simply 20-35 days.
The NYPD can be working carefully with district attorneys who’re declining prosecutions for each felony and misdemeanor arrests and letting suspects proper again out onto the road, Tisch stated.
“It’s fairly demoralizing for our cops to be on the market arresting individuals for crimes, whether or not they be felonies or misdemeanors, solely to have the prosecutor’s workplace decline to prosecute,” she stated. “We are able to’t permit violent criminals out to stroll the streets.”
Tisch’s first order of enterprise to attempt to repair the issue is getting extra cops on the road to guard New Yorkers, she stated.
The NYPD has been having bother filling Academy courses lately partially as a result of different close by departments pay about the identical or higher with simpler hours and fewer commuting for younger officers, who’re continuously beginning households.
As a solution to that, the NYPD is contemplating reducing its college-credit requirement that candidates have to satisfy earlier than turning into cops, she stated.
That might assist the division attain its purpose of 1,000 officers in its subsequent class within the spring, she stated.
Retirements have additionally been hovering, however the commish attributed that pattern to numerous cops beginning on the job 20 years in the past who are actually prepared to gather their pensions.
She’s already getting extra boots on the road by transferring hundred cops out of One PP and different workplaces, she stated.
“We transferred a number of hundred officers out of desk jobs and again to patrol the place they’re wanted most,” she stated.
A few of these strikes additionally got here after The Put up revealed allegations final month of a sex-for-overtime scandal that led to the resignation of Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, the division’s prime uniformed cop.
Tisch instantly transferred prime detectives out of the Inside Affairs Bureau, which is liable for rooting out police misconduct, and the chief of division’s Workplace.
She intends to verify “there aren’t any alternatives for abuse” and lately launched new guidelines for monitoring extra time and automobile utilization.
“This isn’t my first rodeo coping with extra time points,” stated Tisch, who beforehand led the Sanitation Division.
Proper now, the NYPD is engaged on the “logistical nightmare” of getting two cops on each subway prepare as a part of a deliberate deployment with Gov. Kathy Hochul slated to start with the primary 100 officers Monday, Tisch stated. Further phases will probably be rolled out over the approaching weeks with the expectation that the total operation will probably be full by the tip of the month.
Tisch, a member of the rich household that co-owns the New York Giants, informed The Put up she took the job as NYPD commissioner as a result of she “deeply believes within the the Aristocracy of the police.”
“The cops are on the market day by day placing themselves in hurt’s option to maintain everybody protected,” she stated. “That’s the peak of the Aristocracy.”
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