NEW YORK (AP) — In a strategic move, New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced on Wednesday that Jessica Tisch, the current police commissioner, will continue in her role. This decision is seen as a significant win for Mamdani, as it aims to ease concerns stemming from his previous critiques of the New York Police Department.

In his announcement, Mamdani commended Tisch for her efforts in rooting out corruption within the upper ranks of the police force, while simultaneously achieving reductions in the city’s crime rates.

By retaining Tisch, Mamdani likely seeks to reassure city business leaders and others who feared that his earlier critical comments about the NYPD, made during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, might lead to drastic reforms within the department.

This appointment signifies a political collaboration between two leaders who have historically held differing views and come from contrasting backgrounds.

Mamdani, identified as a democratic socialist, has advocated for sweeping social and economic reforms in the city. In contrast, Tisch, coming from a multibillion-dollar family lineage, is seen as a stable, moderate figure within the establishment.

Tisch said she and Mamdani “share many of the same public safety goals for New York City: lowering crime, making communities safer, rooting out corruption, and giving our officers the tools, support, and resources they need to carry out their noble work.”

Tisch took control of the city’s scandal-shaken police department last November. She has overseen a drop shootings and several categories of major crime, earning praise from the business community and some police reform groups.

At a debate weeks before the election, Mamdani announced he planned to ask Tisch to stay on as police commissioner. But Tisch had declined to discuss the offer both before and immediately after Mamdani’s victory, saying she was focused on leading the department under Mayor Eric Adams.

“Commissioner Tisch took on a broken status quo, started to deliver accountability, rooting out corruption and reducing crime across the five boroughs,” Mamdani said at the debate.

But the incoming mayor and police commissioner also have clear political differences. Tisch has fiercely criticized changes to the state’s bail laws, which Mamdani supports. And while the mayor-elect has previously called for defunding the police, Tisch has advocated for expanding their ranks, saying earlier this year that “we need more cops, and I’m not going to sugarcoat it.”

Mamdani has since walked back his comments calling to slash department funding and has said he would keep the headcount at its current number.