Eric Adams gained the Democratic mayoral main in 2021 on a promise to fight crime charges that spiked through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, almost 4 years later, a crowded discipline of candidates within the 2025 NYC Mayor’s Race looking for to interchange Adams argue he has not delivered on his core marketing campaign pledge. They are saying that whereas murders and shootings have seen double-digit drops underneath Adams, his administration has not completed sufficient to make New Yorkers really feel protected.
Beneath, New York News breaks down the general public security plans of every of the foremost Democratic mayoral candidates, in alphabetical order.
Adrienne Adams
Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams rallies in Foley Sq. with council members and advocates to rejoice a state choose extending an order to dam Immigration and Customs Enforcement from re-establishing places of work on Rikers Island. Friday, April 25, 2025.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ marketing campaign shared key factors from her forthcoming public security plan, which it stated it is going to be releasing in full someday within the subsequent few days.
Like a lot of her Democratic main rivals, Speaker Adams needs to spice up the ranks of the NYPD by filling 2,000 vacant posts, whereas bettering retention to stem a mass exodus from the division. She additionally needs to extra successfully handle the NYPD from Metropolis Corridor, following stories that Mayor Adams usually undermined its management.
Different areas she plans to concentrate on embrace bettering belief between the NYPD and the communities it interacts with, fixing extra unsolved crimes, and refocusing cops on core crime-fighting duties as a substitute of psychological health-related actions.
In relation to the subways, Speaker Adams needs to put devoted officers on the system moderately than rotating them out and in. She emphasised that they need to concentrate on crime, and psychological well being outreach ought to be dealt with by social staff who’re targeted on getting these with extreme psychological sickness on the system right into a “continuum of care.”
The speaker additionally pledged to bolster violence prevention and intervention applications in addition to companies for crime victims.
Michael Blake
Michael Blake joined the race for mayor final November, he’s hoping to choose up momentum in these final two months earlier than the primaryPhoto courtesy of BlakeForNYC
Whereas former Bronx Meeting Member Michael Blake has not launched an in depth public security plan, he has laid out a few of his key priorities for tackling the difficulty on his marketing campaign web site.
Amongst his prime public security priorities, Blake listed investing in violence interruptors and youth employment applications; dispatching disaster response groups moderately than police to handle these in psychological well being crises; and establishing “community oversight boards” to supply extra police oversight.
Blake additionally says there’s a must “divest from systems that harm” in reference to “overpolicing. He proposes shifting funding to housing, well being care, and training as a substitute.
Andrew Cuomo
The previous governor has made public security one of many central focuses of his marketing campaign, arguing he’s the candidate greatest positioned to “save” town from what he has characterised as elevated crime and dysfunction underneath Adams’ mayoralty.
The marquee proposal of Cuomo’s plan is to spice up the NYPD’s ranks by 5,000 officers, or 15%, which might carry its headcount to roughly 39,000. His marketing campaign says that rising the variety of cops would pay for itself by reducing down on town’s outsize time beyond regulation spending.
Former governor and Democratic mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo earlier than he speaks to members of the Nationwide Motion Community throughout an April 3 mayoral discussion board.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Cuomo additionally proposed doubling the variety of cops patrolling town’s subways to 4,000. His subway security plan additionally requires putting in high-barrier turnstiles sooner, making a workforce of inspectors inside the MTA devoted to fare evasion enforcement, and appointing a subway security director inside Metropolis Corridor.
Brad Lander
Brad Lander voted to defund the NYPD by $1 billion in 2020 when he was a Metropolis Council member. 5 years later, as metropolis comptroller and mayoral candidate, Lander has reconsidered his place on police funding, shifting extra towards the middle on the difficulty.
Lander’s public security platform guarantees to carry the NYPD’s headcount as much as its budgeted quantity of simply over 35,000 cops with methods like opening the police cadet corps to highschool graduates who would not have faculty credit. Like Cuomo, he additionally pledged to rein in NYPD time beyond regulation spending.
Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Moreover, the comptroller has dedicated to asking present Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Mayor Adams named to the submit final November, to stay on as prime cop. He stated she has completed a “strong job of pushing for reform, accountability, and outcomes-driven decision-making” within the division.
Lander additionally needs to develop strategies for combating gun violence that don’t contain police. These embrace reforming town’s community of violence interruptor organizations — referred to as the Disaster Administration System (CMS) — and guaranteeing summer season jobs for these liable to getting concerned in gun violence.
Zohran Mamdani
In distinction with a lot of his rivals, Queens Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani is pitching a public security plan that doesn’t embrace including extra cops to the NYPD’s ranks.
As a substitute, the Democratic socialist proposed establishing a brand new metropolis company he has dubbed the “Department of Community Safety.” Mamdani envisions the entity assuming sure tasks from the NYPD, together with responding to psychological well being crises both on the streets or within the subways, stemming gun violence, and offering companies to victims.
The company would have a $1 billion price range. Mamdani says these {dollars} would partly come from $400 million in already allotted cash and $600 million in new funding, which could possibly be gleaned from elevating revenue taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.
Queens Meeting Member and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani talking at a rally in Metropolis Corridor Park towards front-runner Andrew Cuomo’s file on housing. Friday, April 18, 2025.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
The Meeting member dedicated to investing $362 million in increasing town’s psychological well being outreach applications, together with a 150% improve to its B-HERD initiative and inserting psychological well being groups within the 100 subway stations with the best want.
Zellnor Myrie
Though State Sen. Zellnor Myrie has made his identify as a legal justice reformer, he, too, has pitched a plan to spice up the NYPD’s staffing ranges.
Myrie has referred to as for including roughly 3,000 extra uniformed cops to the NYPD to carry its headcount again to above 36,000 in 2018.
The state lawmaker additionally pledged that his NYPD would clear up 100% of shootings within the 5 boroughs. He says that the objective could be met by hiring 2,000 new detectives, making a unit devoted to fixing non-fatal shootings, and forming a process power to watch town’s taking pictures investigation clearance charges.
State Sen. and mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
In relation to policing the subways, Myrie needs to proceed surging cops onto the system, with an eye fixed towards switching up how they’re deployed. He additionally proposed deploying 150 co-response groups, made up of psychological well being professionals and officers, to strategy and help these with extreme psychological sickness on town’s subways 24 hours a day.
Myrie additionally needs to strengthen police accountability by devoting 1% of the NYPD’s price range to the Civilian Criticism Evaluation Board police oversight physique.
Jessica Ramos
Though state Sen. Jessica Ramos has not launched an in depth public security plan, her marketing campaign web site outlines 5 ways in which she would take a “holistic approach” to addressing the difficulty.
Ramos’s public security agenda consists of factors like combating gun violence via community-based violence prevention, placing extra sources towards hate crime prevention, growing unbiased oversight of the NYPD, and boosting funding for psychological well being response groups and violence interrupters.
Nevertheless, growing the dimensions of the police power just isn’t amongst her listed priorities.
Queens State Sen. and mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos.File picture by Lloyd Mittchel
Scott Stringer
Former metropolis Comptroller Scott Stringer, who additionally referred to as for defunding the police in 2020, was the primary main Democratic mayoral candidate this election cycle to pitch a public security plan that proposed hiring 1000’s extra cops.
Just like different candidates’ proposals, Stringer’s plan would see town rent a further 3,000 cops to carry the NYPD’s headcount again to its budgeted quantity of 35,000. So as to entice extra officers, Stringer pledged to recruit from underrepresented communities by working with faculties and neighborhood teams, in addition to attracting cops from different jurisdictions by providing backed housing and relocation help.
Stringer can also be proposing appointing a “Deputy Mayor for Quality of Life” who would oversee a brand new high quality of life monitoring system he would name “QualitySTAT.” Based mostly on the NYPD’s already current efficiency measurement system, CompStat, QualitySTAT would pull in real-time knowledge from the NYPD and different metropolis companies, together with the Departments of Homeless Companies and Sanitation. The town would use the info to enhance the way it addresses high quality of life points.
Stringer additionally pledged to put a cop on each subway automotive to discourage subway crime.
Former metropolis Comptroller Scott Stringer. Feb 13, 2025.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Whitney Tilson
Democratic candidate for Mayor Whitney Tilson deliberate to hitch the anti-Trump rally was shocked by the anti-Zionist speeches and chants. Picture by Gabriele Holtermann
Hedge fund supervisor Whitney Tilson, who has additionally made public security a core tenet of his marketing campaign, has the bold objective of reducing crime by 50% throughout his tenure.
Whereas he has not launched an in depth public security plan, Tilson outlined 3 ways he would reduce crime on his web site.
First, Tilson stated he would enhance investments in areas of town with the best crime charges — although he didn’t go into specifics about how he would accomplish that. Second, he needs to spice up the dimensions of the NYPD’s ranks by 10%, additionally with out outlining which particular steps he would take.
Lastly, Tilson pledged to push for additional rolling again 2019 bail and discovery reforms on the state stage, arguing these modifications have allowed far too many individuals who commit crimes to finish up again on the streets.
