Exclusive | How new NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch is tackling recidivism and re-shaping the nations largest police department
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s 17 years in public service went out the window about a month and a half into her new gig as the boss of the NYPD.It was the day after police say a maniac recidivist fatally stabbed 14-year-old Caleb Rios as he walked to school in the Bronx, and Tisch was on the phone with the boy’s mom, consoling her as a commissioner — and a mother.“It was one of the most painful experiences of my life,” Tisch, 43, who has a son around the same age as Caleb, told The Post Friday in an interview in her 14th-floor office at One Police Plaza.“It’s a tragedy for his family.It’s a tragedy for the city,” she said of the Jan.
10 horror.“The man who stabbed him should not have been out on our streets.
That family is shattered.”Tisch was already having “recidivist of the day” conversations with her top chiefs during daily meetings to try to figure out how to get repeat offenders off the street, she said. Walter Mejia, 29, who allegedly stabbed Caleb, was previously arrested at least five times, for arson, burglary, possession of a knife, possession of a loaded 9mm gun, criminal mischief and harassment as recently as November.Caleb’s murder brought the problem home for her — and strengthened her resolve.“Something’s got to give in this criminal justice system,” Tisch said.“Felonies are trending downward, which is wonderful, but we have a problem with surging recidivism.
The same people are committing the same crimes in the same neighborhoods.” Tisch plans to travel to Albany to talk to legislators about changing some of the criminal justice reform laws that have created a revolving-door system in Gotham, she told The Post. “We’re seeing too many cases die on the vine because of a discovery error or discovery problem that is completely irrelevant to the outcome of the case,” she said. Discovery laws impose a burden on prosecutors to turn over voluminous amounts of evidence to the defense in just 20-35 d...