The New York Police Department will replace 36,000 cell phones with brand new iPhones by the end of the year despite the fact that a number of the phones are less than two years old.

The NYPD's Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology Jessica Tisch is being blamed for the need to buy new phones prematurely, the New York Post reported Monday. Tisch oversaw the purchase of the old Nokia Microsoft-based cell phones as a part of a $160 million "NYPD Mobility Initiative." The initiate was touted by Mayor Bill de Blasio as "a huge step into the 21st century."

The technology purchased, however, is already irrelevant. Microsoft has announced it will stop operational system support on the phones and software after July 11. Forbes responded to the announcement with the declaration, "Windows Phone is dead."

A source told the Post that Tisch was solely responsible for the so-called "boondoggle."

"Nobody purchases 36,000 phones based on the judgment of one person," the source said.

Tisch "drove the whole process," according to another source familiar with the matter.

The sources said Tisch insisted on the Microsoft-based phones in part because other NYPD systems were also Microsoft-based.

Prior to Microsoft's announcement, Tisch had already been criticized for not purchasing cell phones based off Google or Apple software.

"The NYPD's decision to go with Microsoft's mobile operating system seems to confound more than a few, since Windows Phone's 2.3 percent U.S. market share is anemic when compared to Android's 65.2 percent and iOS's 30.9 percent," read an article published on the tech news site Digital Trends in October.

Having officers carry cell phones in the field has been helpful because they receive emergency information more quickly and can react based on better information.