Method again in 2025, new mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani promised voters sweeping reform on the NYPD.
The long-shot state lawmaker pledged to kill a controversial gang database and terminate a SWAT-like police unit that had been criticized for over-aggressive ways.
He would do away with NYPD groups centered on so-called “quality of life” infractions that some critics claimed goal Black and Hispanic New Yorkers.
And he would shift the ultimate phrase on self-discipline of unhealthy cops from the police commissioner to a civilian watchdog.
100 days into his tenure at Metropolis Corridor, Mayor Mamdani has both backtracked on these guarantees or has but to element how and when he’ll handle candidate Mamdani’s issues concerning the police.
NYPD officers ticket a road vendor in Corona, Queens, April 1, 2026. Credit score: Gwynne Hogan/THE CITY
Felony justice reformers and cops alike aren’t certain what to anticipate from the democratic socialist who made his vow to vary the “culture” of the NYPD a central message in his marketing campaign.
‘Herculean Task’
The New York Civil Liberties Union — which helps lots of Mamdani’s initiatives — is a bit pissed off however steadfastly optimistic. Michael Sisitzky, the group’s assistant coverage director, confused the “preexisting problems with the NYPD that the mayor has inherited, saying it’s a pretty herculean task to right these issues.”
Leaders of the Police Benevolent Affiliation, who aren’t huge followers of the mayor, say their members are skeptical.
An NYPD automotive speeds by means of Manhattan, Oct. 28, 2025. Credit score: Christian Mueller/Shutterstock
“It’s good that the mayor has not acted on a few of his most drastic marketing campaign pledges, however there may be nonetheless a notion amongst cops that town below his management gained’t have our backs,” PBA President Patrick Hendry instructed THE CITY.
“It’s nonetheless early, and the mayor has an opportunity to vary that notion, however he must make an actual effort to listen to our issues and work with us to handle them,” Hendry stated.
The mayor instructed the New York Instances in an interview printed Thursday that he’ll overrule Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch if he believes it’s essential to advance reforms, asserting that “because the mayor, finally I’m liable for what occurs in our metropolis inside every metropolis company and division.”
From outsider to Mr. Inside
Mamdani spokesperson Sam Raskin famous some steps towards police reform. The mayor appointed a deputy mayor for neighborhood security, a primary step towards the formation of his promised division supposed to cut back the variety of unstable police responses to 911 psychological well being calls.
Metropolis Corridor has codified an NYPD coverage requiring the division to launch physique digital camera footage inside 30 days of what Raskin referred to as “critical incidents.”
NYPD officers put on physique cameras in Midtown Manhattan, Nov. 3, 2020. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
And police have stopped issuing prison summonses for “low level” e-bike and bicycle owner offenses that had been championed by the earlier administration.
Mamdani’s first weeks at Metropolis Corridor, by means of April 5, noticed a 24% drop in murders and a 20% drop in shootings in comparison with the identical time interval final 12 months. All the key crimes have dropped besides rape, which rose 8%.
“This administration is shifting with urgency to construct a safer, fairer metropolis and improve transparency to revive belief in our public security system — and we’re simply getting began,” Raskin stated.
Susan Kang, an affiliate professor of political science at John Jay School of Felony Justice and a longstanding member of the Democratic Socialists of America, acknowledged that some DSA members aren’t pleased with Mamdani’s tempo of reform, however she stated Mamdani’s extra measured strategy will get higher outcomes.
A marcher is carried away by cops at an anti-ICE protest in Decrease Manhattan, June 10, 2025. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
The DSA helped put Mamdani in Metropolis Corridor — and opposed his determination to reappoint Commissioner Tisch.
“The DSA works outside of institutions. A mayor works within institutions so he has a different set of goals,” Kang stated.
From ‘defund’ to ‘reform’
Mamdani’s sophisticated relationship with the NYPD goes again to 2020 with the newly elected state lawmaker’s repeated calls for to “defund the police” throughout protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a place he later retracted. The mayor’s metamorphosis continued along with his determination to retain Tisch, who public defenders say has opposed many prison justice reforms.
One key space of disagreement between the mayor and his police commissioner is the database the NYPD compiles of suspected gang members, which Tisch has typically praised as a essential public security device. Mamdani has a distinct take.
Final fall, his predecessor, Eric Adams, unveiled comparatively tepid reforms that included notifying dad and mom if their baby was positioned within the system on account of suspected gang ties.
Members of the GANGS coalition protest on July 27, 2021, exterior the NYPD’s inspector common’s workplace in Decrease Manhattan. Credit score: Eileen Grench/THE CITY
In candidate Mamdani’s view, that wasn’t sufficient. He vowed to eradicate the database altogether, dubbing it a “vast dragnet of New Yorkers.”
Final week, nevertheless, the mayor stood silently subsequent to Tisch as she once more praised the database, noting police relied on it to get forward of retaliatory shootings.
On Monday, Mamdani didn’t straight handle questions on whether or not he nonetheless intends to eradicate it, telling reporters he supported Adams’ “reforms,” and that “implementation of those reforms and the results of that are part of the active discussion that we’re having.”
“Coming in with an ambitious agenda to change the police is always a process that takes time, Kang told THE CITY. “If you go in with guns blazing you don’t get buy-in. Mayor Mamdani is doing everything right to have that buy-in that respects the need for public safety as well as the need for human rights.”
A strategic response
Then there’s the Strategic Response Group, an NYPD unit that Metropolis Councilmember Chi Osse, D-Brooklyn, has proposed eliminating over accusations that it has used extreme power on protesters, together with at an anti-ICE protest in January. Sisitzky of the NYCLU famous the mayor has but to weigh in on Osse’s invoice, generally known as the Curb Act.
An NYPD Strategic Response Group officer helps to police an anti-ICE protest in Manhattan, Jan. 27, 2026. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
As a candidate, Mamdani repeatedly referred to as for the unit to be disbanded. Six weeks into his mayoralty, Mamdani praised the response by the NYPD — which included the SRG — to an assault by two males impressed by the terrorist group ISIS after one in all them tossed improvised explosive gadgets at anti-Muslim protesters exterior Gracie Mansion.
On Wednesday mayoral spokesperson Raskin stated Mamdani “stays dedicated” to eliminating the Strategic Response Group.
One other break up between Mamdani and Tisch facilities on the “Quality of Life Teams” she created final 12 months in response to a spike in 311 complaints about low-level malfeasance from public urination to loud music to rowdy habits. Critics likened it to the “broken windows” strategy of concentrating on smaller-bore crimes with enforcement disproportionately affecting the Black and Hispanic communities.
In the course of the marketing campaign, Mamdani was a gradual critic of quality-of-life enforcement. At a January press convention Mamdani deflected a query about their variations over these items, saying, “What we are fully aligned on is the fact that we need to see genuine public safety across the city.”
Tisch shortly stepped in to make clear: “I just want to add that the Quality of Life Division is by no means a return to broken windows policing.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani marches subsequent to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Cardinal Timothy Dolan within the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan, March 17, 2026. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Candidate Mamdani additionally took subject with the police commissioner having the ultimate say over disciplinary suggestions for unhealthy cops, proposing that the Civilian Criticism Overview Board have the final phrase.
Tisch typically overrides the CCRB’s calls, together with in August when she rejected the advice of the CCRB and an NYPD administrative decide to fireside a cop who’d fatally shot a driver fleeing an arrest.
Mamdani seems to have backtracked on this, saying after his victory in November that “what I believe is that the CCRB’s recommendations should be taken seriously, that we should ensure they’re able to make those recommendations time and again.”
What number of cops?
One space mayor and his police commissioner seem to agree on is the variety of uniformed officers mandatory for the NYPD to do its job.
In his first preliminary price range proposal, Mamdani ditched his predecessor Adam’s last-minute plan to rent 5,000 extra cops, enraging many Republican and a few Democratic politicians who framed that as a minimize to the division’s dimension .
However Tisch declared the criticism of Mamdani’s determination a lot ado about nothing. Throughout a current price range listening to, she famous the division had just lately been in a position to rent 4,000 new officers, bringing the uniformed headcount to the total quantity of 35,000 for the primary time in 4 years.
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