NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch made it clear Monday she’s “revolted” by the idea of the National Guard patrolling the streets of New York City.
“National Guard, God bless them — they are not trained to handle street crime in New York City,” Tisch said at a Midtown breakfast hosted by the Citzens Budget Commission. “They’re trained in a lot of things. That happens not to be one of the things that they specialize in.”
Her comments come as the Trump administration is preparing to send the National Guard to Chicago, with the possibility of other cities to follow.
“One of the major concerns that I have around this topic of deploying the National Guard to New York City or big cities across the country is that it will introduce an amount of chaos and disorder and confusion that will be counterproductive — to say nothing of the fact that as a lifelong New Yorker I am revolted by the idea of the militarization of our streets,” Tisch said.
Mayor Adams has also dismissed the need for deploying the National Guard to the city to fight crime, saying last month that “we don’t need anyone to come in and take over our law enforcement apparatus.”
Adams, who has reportedly been in talks about potentially dropping out of this year’s mayoral race to take a potential Trump administration job, has not been as unequivocal as Tisch was Monday in condemning the very concept of a National Guard deployment.
Tisch, who recently met with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, said Monday she would make it clear to her or anyone else who wants to discuss the matter that “the NYPD, we’ve got this.”
“We don’t need or want the federal government’s help here in that way,” she added.
Tisch touted New York City’s continued drop in murders, shootings and other crimes, saying that NYPD officers are the best at what they do.
“Now is certainly not the time to rock the boat,” she said.
Tisch did, however, say that if the White House really wants to help the city it should concentrate even more on the flow of guns along the so-called Iron Pipeline from Southern states north to the city.
“I would take many more gun cases federally if we had more federal prosecutors,” she said. “Let’s focus on the right type of partnership with the federal government.”
Originally Published: September 8, 2025 at 12:21 PM EDT
