In the 1890s, Theodore Roosevelt, then head of the board of police commissioners, scoured New York, reporters in tow, hunting officers in saloons and brothels in what he called “midnight rambles.”

More than half a century later, the Brooklyn district attorney uncovered graft so widespread it forced the resignation of the police commissioner and the former mayor, who had become ambassador to Mexico.

In the 1990s, a city commission rooted out the “Dirty 30,” officers in Harlem who had beaten up dealers and broken down their doors to steal cash and drugs.

Officials have been trying to tame corruption and misconduct in the Police Department for more than a century, but the problems that Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch inherited when she took over the department in November are especially thorny.

The current mess involves sprawling accusations of misconduct among high-ranking brass, as well as rampant overtime abuse and mismanagement. But she must solve it while reporting directly to the man who appointed her and elevated many of those leaders — Mayor Eric Adams, a former captain who is himself under federal indictment and is fighting for re-election this year.

In her seven weeks on the job, she has overhauled about half the executive staff — the high-ranking chiefs and commissioners who report to her. But she has also promoted a commander admired by Mayor Adams who is known for berating reporters and city officials on social media, raising questions about her independence.

Commissioner Tisch, 43, the former head of the Sanitation Department, is stepping into power at a tumultuous time. Federal agents seized files from the interim commissioner who preceded her, Thomas Donlon, and they took the phone of the commissioner before him, Edward Caban. Jeffrey Maddrey, who was the department’s top uniformed officer, is also under federal investigation after a lieutenant accused him of coercing her into sex in exchange for overtime opportunities.

The confluence of investigations “has got to be unprecedented or a new low for modern times,” said Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. It is also, he said, an “unprecedented opportunity” to make sweeping changes.

“With Adams under federal indictment and those he brought in to oversee and run the department under investigation, Tisch is unlikely to have to worry about heavy-handed interference from City Hall,” Mr. Richman said. She has “freedom to make bold personnel moves that in normal times would be impossible for an outsider.”

Commissioner Tisch has begun to aggressively shake up the nation’s largest police department, from high-level commanders to patrol officers. She said in an interview that she had replaced nearly a dozen chiefs and deputy commissioners, including the head of the Internal Affairs Bureau.

“Every police car says ‘courtesy, professionalism and respect,’” she said. “The leadership of the Police Department has to model that. I’m very confident that that direction is now clear.”

It was a statement that echoed a video message she sent throughout the roughly 50,000-employee department on New Year’s Day, when she vowed to restore “pride and honor” and said officers, not top brass, had been “leading the way” in setting a good example.

“The last few weeks have seen a challenging time for our department,” Commissioner Tisch told them. “Public scandal has led to a thoughtful and decisive shake-up among our executive staff.”

That included the resignation of Mr. Maddrey, an Adams ally. She also replaced the combative head of the department’s public information office, Tarik Sheppard, who sparred with reporters and other department leaders. Around the same time, she ordered the return of 600 officers whom chiefs and deputy commissioners had transferred without authorization from their regular assignments.

Another 400 were transferred so they could be redeployed to crime hot spots or understaffed parts of the department. Overtime pay for many of the officers had raised questions, Commissioner Tisch said.

The commissioner said she saw herself as a reformer. “I am not someone who accepts the status quo when the status quo doesn’t serve New Yorkers,” she said.

But one decision has drawn criticism — the promotion of John Chell from chief of patrol to chief of department, the highest-ranking uniformed position and supervisor of commanders and police operations. The elevation of Chief Chell, 56, who was close to Chief Maddrey, has led to questions about the continued influence of Mayor Adams, who has taken a keen interest in the department and has vested his political fortunes in its success.

Elizabeth Glazer, a former mayoral adviser to Bill de Blasio and the founder of Vital City, an online research journal, said that Commissioner Tisch “did exactly what had to be done.”

She called it “an incredible shot in the arm for the majority of the people in the department who have seen the disintegration of the department.”

But her decision to elevate Chief Chell was unsettling, Ms. Glazer said.

In 2008, Chief Chell, then a lieutenant and commander of an anti-theft unit, shot and killed Ortanzso Bovell, a man who was driving what police said was a stolen car. He said Mr. Bovell had backed the stolen car into him, causing his gun to fire accidentally and hit Mr. Bovell in the back. But following a civil trial in 2017, a jury found that the shooting was intentional. The jurors awarded Mr. Bovell’s family $2.5 million.

Most recently, Chief Chell’s online behavior has prompted questions over his temperament. Chief Chell has said he was using social media to defend officers and the department.

Ms. Glazer said that Chief Chell “seems to wear personal umbrage on his sleeve.” “That undermines her very clear direction that the executives at the highest levels act professionally, without fear or favor,” she said, referring to Commissioner Tisch.

This month, Mayor Adams spoke with Corey Pegues, a retired deputy inspector who now conducts online interviews and offers commentary on his YouTube channel. In the interview, Mr. Pegues called the shooting of Mr. Bovell “bad” and asked why Mr. Adams supported Chief Chell.

The mayor defended the commander, saying his background had been “vetted and analyzed.”

“You know him based on the encounter that you stated,” Mayor Adams said. “What I have seen over the two years that I have been here, I’ve seen a nonstop person.”

“He has served this city well,” he said. “I’m proud of the job he has been doing.”

Chris Dunn, the former legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Chief Chell’s appointment was “the most notable exception to the leadership housecleaning.”

“That may be the bargain Commissioner Tisch struck with the mayor,” he said. “But I’m betting we’ll see less bombast from him and a reduced public presence.”

For the past several months, Chief Chell has been quieter on social media, where he once ripped into politicians like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán. Lately, his posts have been reserved for officers making arrests and cracking crimes.

Commissioner Tisch said Chief Chell was a “proven crime fighter” whose strategies were part of the reason crime had declined.

“I’ve also made very clear my expectations around courtesy, professionalism, respect and dignity,” she said. “I am confident that the members of the executive staff will rise to meet those expectations.”

Commissioner Tisch said she “absolutely” felt free to pick her own executive staff members. She said she submitted the names of her candidates to City Hall, so they could be vetted as they were when she was head of sanitation.

“Of course, I’ve discussed them with the mayor,” she said. “But it is not meaningfully different.”

Mayor Adams will continue to have say over some appointments, said William Bratton, a former police commissioner who promoted Commissioner Tisch to deputy commissioner of information and technology when she first worked at the department.

“There is no denying the mayor is still going to have influence over the department,” Mr. Bratton said. “He’s going to rise and fall with whatever happens in that department in the next couple of months.”

Mr. Bratton said he admired Chief Chell’s focus on “quality of life” issues, such as arresting people driving illegal motorbikes and scooters — petty crimes that can lead to the perception that the city is out of control.

“I happen to like a lot of what Chell has done,” he said. “He’s controversial in his outspokenness, but Jessie has obviously decided that she can deal with that and maybe temper it.”

Peter Moskos, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who teaches in a master’s program for police officials, said that for months, his students had been bemoaning the state of their agency. He began to hear murmurs of cautious hope in December, as the term wound down and Commissioner Tisch began making her changes, Mr. Moskos said.

“I’m a little more optimistic now,” he said, adding, “It’s hard to tell other cops to follow the rules when the leaders aren’t. ”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

With 43 days left before the start of Stephen K. Bannon’s trial in Manhattan, he asked a judge on Monday to be allowed to replace his lawyers for a second time, a move that could delay the trial. Again.

Mr. Bannon, who is charged with defrauding contributors who paid for the construction of a southern border wall, first replaced his defense team in 2023 after one of his lawyers said there had been “a complete breakdown in communication.”

In November, the New York judge overseeing the trial, April A. Newbauer, pushed back its start date from December to February, saying “we’re not changing it again.”

But on Monday, the lawyer that Mr. Bannon now wants to represent him, Arthur Aidala, said that he did not have enough time to adequately prepare for the Feb. 25 trial because there was so much information “to swallow and process.”

“We are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” he told the judge. “I just don’t have, or we, I should say, we don’t have, enough information.”

Justice Newbauer ordered Mr. Bannon to return to court on Jan. 22 for the parties to make their arguments about his request.

Mr. Bannon, an influential right-wing media figure, was a staple in Donald J. Trump’s orbit for years — he was an architect of Mr. Trump’s 2016 election victory and served as a White House strategist. In recent years, he has been embroiled in a multitude of controversies.

In October, Mr. Bannon was released from prison after serving four months on contempt charges for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena for information about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. This week, he catapulted back into the news after rebuking Elon Musk, the newest star in the president-elect’s team, calling him a “truly evil person.”

His work in Mr. Trump’s first administration led to Mr. Bannon’s legal troubles in New York. And his attempts to delay his case in Manhattan bear a resemblance to Mr. Trump’s own methods of stalling prosecutions.

The allegations against Mr. Bannon stem from his involvement with a group called We Build the Wall, which raised more than $25 million from donors to help construct a barrier between the United States and Mexico, Mr. Trump’s signature policy initiative during his first term.

Mr. Bannon played a senior role in the group, which promised donors that their contributions would be used only to build the barrier. However, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office have said that was a lie, and have accused Mr. Bannon with taking part in a conspiracy to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of the group’s officers.

Mr. Bannon faced similar federal charges, and several co-conspirators went to prison. But Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon during his final hours in office in 2021, when the president wiped away the convictions and prison sentences of a roster of politicians and business executives.

Last year, lawyers who helped Mr. Bannon secure his pardon won a judgment against him for nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal fees.

Mr. Trump cannot pardon Mr. Bannon on state charges, so New York’s case against him has chugged along.

Mr. Aidala, whom Mr. Bannon now wants to represent him, is a ubiquitous figure in New York’s criminal courtrooms who is as comfortable before a judge as he is before the press — like many of his clients. His roster includes Rudolph W. Giuliani, Harvey Weinstein and a former top aide to Mayor Eric Adams.

On Monday, Mr. Aidala said Mr. Bannon approached his law firm in December, but he declined to represent Mr. Bannon because of another trial scheduled for January. His firm then left that case for unrelated reasons, making him available for Mr. Bannon, he said.

Another complication, according to Mr. Aidala, is that in the spring he is scheduled to represent Mr. Weinstein on sex crimes charges. And Mr. Weinstein has asked for his trial to be moved up, which could interfere with the start of Mr. Bannon’s case, Mr. Aidala told the judge.

“I don’t want you to think anyone is trying to play any games or do any slick lawyering,” Mr. Aidala said. “I told you everything that’s a factual basis for where we are here today.”

Justice Newbauer said she was concerned that replacing the law firm that had been driving the case might result in “starting from scratch.”

Prosecutors also resisted the request. Jeffrey Levinson, an assistant district attorney, told the judge that they were “indifferent as to who represents Mr. Bannon, as long as the case goes to trial as scheduled.”

“He is clearly trying to make a substitution of counsel for the purpose of delay,” Mr. Levinson said.

As he prepares for his final year as governor of New Jersey, Philip D. Murphy on Tuesday proposed banning cellphones in schools and disclosed plans to blunt any additional limits on abortion access by the Trump administration.

Mr. Murphy also said he would work to address last year’s alarming 14 percent increase in roadway fatalities by overhauling the state’s 10 most dangerous intersections.

Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, began his seventh State of the State address in Trenton by acknowledging what he called “the elephant that is not in the room”: President-elect Donald J. Trump.

“I know there is some uncertainty and even concern about what this administration will bring,” the governor said, drawing the first round of applause from the standing-room-only crowd.

Mr. Murphy, who plans to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration next week, said he “would never back away from partnering with the Trump administration” when doing so aligned with New Jersey’s priorities. But he vowed to fight Mr. Trump “if and when” those values are tested.

To that end, he said that New Jersey would stockpile a supply of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, in the event that Mr. Trump moved to limit its availability.

Aides to Mr. Murphy said New Jersey’s Department of Health had already begun gathering a six-month “strategic reserve” of medications, including mifepristone, which will be stored with abortion providers.

New Jersey law permits abortion throughout a pregnancy. But the governor also said that he would pursue legislation to end out-of-pocket costs for the procedure, reiterating a proposal he made last year.

As he outlined his priorities for his final year in office, Mr. Murphy said he would push for legislation to provide full pay to state workers on parental leave, make full-day kindergarten mandatory in the small number of towns that do not already offer it and permit 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections.

But perhaps the loudest and most sustained applause came when Mr. Murphy said he would direct school districts to adopt policies that ban cellphones in the state’s elementary, middle and high schools.

“Our children are inundated with screens,” Mr. Murphy said, adding that cellphone use had fueled a rise in cyberbullying and contributed to a mental health crisis among children.

“We will help establish phone-free schools,” he vowed.

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, said Monday that she planned to limit cellphone use in schools.

New York and New Jersey join a growing number of states, including Virginia, Ohio and Minnesota, that have moved to limit the use of the devices in schools. Los Angeles Unified became the largest school district in the United States to ban cellphones last year.

Mr. Murphy is prohibited by law from running for more than two consecutive terms, and November’s race to replace him is already in full swing.

Six prominent Democrats and four Republicans are competing for their party’s nomination to run for governor in the June primaries. The list of contenders includes the mayors of the state’s two largest cities, two members of Congress and a former Republican Assembly member who came within three percentage points of beating Mr. Murphy in 2021.

Indeed, the governor’s speech had a perfunctory air, and members of the audience at times appeared distracted; some repeatedly exited and re-entered the State Assembly chamber throughout the address.

The Republican leader of the State Senate, Anthony M. Bucco, called Mr. Murphy’s address a retread of costly, feel-good policy proposals.

“This state has become more and more and more unaffordable,” Mr. Bucco said.

“The days of spending outside of our means are coming to an end,” he added.

Still, the hourlong speech offered a window into major challenges facing New Jersey, including last year’s 14 percent increase in roadway fatalities.

Traffic fatalities nationwide have been declining. But last year in New Jersey, there were 691 traffic deaths, up from 606 the year before. Pedestrian fatalities soared by 32 percent.

The increase coincided with a drastic eight-month reduction in traffic enforcement by State Police troopers, who in July 2023 began writing far fewer tickets for speeding, drunken driving, cellphone use and other violations.

The reduced enforcement began a week after the state’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, released a report critical of the performance of the State Police, New Jersey’s largest policing agency.

In August 2023, the first full month of the slowdown, troopers wrote 81 percent fewer tickets statewide, and crashes on the state’s two main highways immediately began to increase, according to records obtained by The New York Times through public records requests.

Mr. Platkin has appointed Preet Bharara, a prominent former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, to lead a criminal investigation of the slowdown.

Mr. Murphy is the only official in New Jersey with the power to replace the State Police superintendent, Col. Patrick Callahan, who led the department during the slowdown.

On Monday, when asked about the relationship between traffic fatalities and the reduced levels of enforcement, Mr. Murphy said, “If we’re not enforcing the laws on the books, that’s unacceptable.”

But he also worked to shift accountability for the slowdown away from himself and instead place full responsibility on Mr. Platkin and Colonel Callahan.

“It’s on their backs to get this into the right place,” Mr. Murphy said, adding that he had confidence in both men.

A spokesman for Colonel Callahan did not respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, Mr. Murphy signed a bill that created a commission dedicated to reducing the number of traffic fatalities in New Jersey to zero by 2040.

On Tuesday, he told lawmakers that he would “work with all of you to make New Jersey’s roads safer.”

He also announced plans to “overhaul” 10 of the state’s most dangerous intersections “to keep our families safe and to help prevent avoidable tragedies.”