NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch is sending 200 more cops into the Bronx and splitting it into two patrol commands as the northernmost borough continues to buck the citywide dip in crime.
The move would shake up the NYPD structure in the Bronx, matching the two-tier borough patrol commands in the larger boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, Tisch said during the annual State of the NYPD speech at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday.
“For too long, the Bronx has experienced more crime per capita than any other borough while operating under a structure that hasn’t kept pace with the demands placed on it,” the Big Apple’s top cop said.
“Just look at the numbers,” Tisch said. “Last year, the Bronx accounted for more than one-third of all shooting incidents and shooting victims citywide – roughly three times Queens and Manhattan. The borough recorded more major crime than Manhattan and Queens, and nearly as much as Brooklyn.”
She said there were nearly 1 million calls for service last year in the Bronx – more than in Queens and nearly equal to Manhattan.
City crime stats show that while crime has been steadily dropping citywide, the Bronx has stubbornly continued to see troubling increases in major crimes in recent years.
According to the data, the seven major crimes tracked by law enforcement — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto — have dipped drastically in all the boroughs except the Bronx since 2001 and last year.
Over that time span, reports of those crimes in the Bronx have crept up from 26,943 to 30,314 last year while every other NYPD command in the city has dipped, in some cases by half.
Last year, the Bronx also led the city in murders, with 101 compared to 92 in Brooklyn, 50 in Queens, 53 in Manhattan and only three in the significantly smaller borough of Staten Island, the stats show.
Of the five boroughs, only Staten Island and the Bronx are patrolled by a single command — something that Tisch said will now change this spring.
“The Bronx is organized under a single patrol borough command – one leadership structure overseeing every precinct – while Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens have long since moved to two-patrol borough commands to handle the volume of the work there,” she said.
“Bronx residents have raised this issue for years,” Tisch added. “They’re not asking for special treatment. They’re asking a reasonable question about fairness and capacity: why does a borough this large still operate under a structure that wouldn’t be acceptable elsewhere in the city?”
By creating Bronx North and Bronx South command, the borough will see 200 more cops on the streets.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said the two-patrol plan puts the borough on equal footing with Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn after being “under resourced for decades.”
“It will mean not only additional police officers, but coverage and enforcement tailored to specific needs of our diverse neighborhoods,” Clark said in a statement. “I believe it will lead to more opportunities to prevent crimes, as well as respond to and solve them.”
Tisch was appointed police commissioner by former Mayor Eric Adams in 2024, and was asked to stay on when state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor in November.
During her tenure, Tisch has made significant changes to how the NYPD does business, relaxing some police recruitment standards to replenish the dwindling ranks and creating a specialized police quality of life command to address common grips from New Yorkers.