NYPD top cop Jessica Tisch scolds pol over shootings during budget hearing: ‘Mischaracterized’
She’s burning over The Bronx.
A miffed NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch got into a fiery exchange Wednesday with progressive City Councilman Oswald Feliz (D-Bronx) over rising shootings in the Boogie Down.
Feliz ticked off Tisch as he repeatedly pressed her over why the number of shooting victims rose 35% in the borough while crime citywide has stayed flat — momentarily derailing an otherwise sedate budget hearing for the nation’s largest police force.
Tisch argued the increase seen so far this year was a statistical blip, because it came on the heels of the Bronx’s record-breaking reduction in gun violence in 2025.
“I will not have the work of the members of the NYPD mischaracterized,” she snapped.
The dramatic exchange punctuated otherwise smooth testimony from Tisch during the hearing, where she detailed modest gains in cracking down on overtime and said she’s in talks with Mayor Zohran Mamdani to keep the force’s controversial Strategic Response Group, which he has said he wants to scrap.
Tisch also contended the NYPD turned a corner on staffing. She said 2025 was the department’s largest hiring year on record, with more than 4,000 officers brought in to replace a wave of retirements.
“We not only outpaced attrition in 2025, we essentially brought the NYPD back to its authorized uniform head count for the first time in three years,” she said.
But Tisch’s optimistic disposition quickly changed when Feliz hammered her over shooting numbers in the Bronx.
The borough has seen 48 shootings with 57 victims so far this year, according to NYPD data.
During the same span last year, there were 37 shootings with 42 victims, the data shows.
“So, it’s safe to say the progress related to shooting hasn’t reached the Bronx?” Feliz asked Tisch, highlighting the increase in shooting victims.
Tisch pointed out the Bronx not only saw roughly 100 fewer people shot in 2025 than the year before, but the borough also had its single largest shooting decline.
Feliz persisted in pointing out this year’s increase, drawing Tisch’s ire.
“Over a record low year,” she said. “And I agree with you, I like to set records every year, and I intend to do that this year, including in the borough of the Bronx. But I do not appreciate the mischaracterization of the work of this department.”
“We are using the same playbook that we used last year, which led to record-breaking results citywide but particularly in the borough of the Bronx,” she said.
