Mayor Zohran Mamdani has walked back an NYPD headcount expansion after significant pushback from police reform advocates. About 70 organizations signed a letter against the projected 580 officer hiring spree, pointing to the mayor’s original campaign promise to keep the police department’s headcount flat. Among them are many of Mamdani’s earliest and strongest proponents, including the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), New York Communities for Change (NYCC), and Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM).
“Your election as mayor gave us hope for a genuine break from the failed policing-first approach that has criminalized our communities for decades and left unaddressed the actual challenges that low-income New Yorkers are facing,” they wrote in the letter. “We, the undersigned 70 organizations, share urgent and deep concerns about the direction your administration’s approach to public safety appears to be headed.
“We write not as opponents but as partners who believe New York City can lead the nation in building public safety systems grounded in care, as opposed to the ineffective, harmful[,] and costly status quo of criminalization.”
In response, a mayoral spokesperson pointed to Mamdani’s remarks in a News 12 interview. “I appreciate the fact that their concern comes from a desire for the city to be the best that it can be, the safest that it could be,” said Mamdani, “and as the mayor, you appreciate and take into consideration everyone’s views and opinions on these things.”
Criticism from the left over Mamdani’s public safety platform largely dates back to his decision to retain NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch while still on last year’s campaign trail. Keeping the billionaire heiress befuddled police reform advocates, who felt her support for Israel, emphasis on low-level enforcement, and refusal to fire Lt. Jonathan Rivera for killing Allan Feliz contradicted the Democratic Socialists’ policy agenda. Mamdani, a long-time critic of the Israeli government, previously called for Rivera’s firing and vowed to move away from defaulting to police through his Department of Community Safety campaign promise.
A projected headcount increase revealed earlier this month amplified these concerns. The Mamdani administration largely attributed the openings to creating flexibility for enhanced training, but also slated roughly 185 new cops to patrol the Bronx. Ultimately, this increase was not included in the budget handshake agreement between Mamdani and the City Council made on June 30.
“While we wish Mayor Mamdani had simply kept his campaign promise to maintain a flat NYPD headcount in his executive budget proposal, in the final budget, he and the City Council made the right decision to stand with New Yorkers, instead of caving to NYPD political pressure,” said Justice Committee executive director Loyda Colón in a statement. “Now New Yorkers need Mayor Mamdani to maintain that political courage by truly embracing a transformative approach to public safety.”
During a later press conference, Mamdani answered a question about scrapping the increase in the 11th hour. “Commissioner Tisch and I were able to identify ways to keep the NYPD headcount at the originally authorized 35,000, while also meeting all of our crime-fighting needs and implementing the new programs that were announced earlier this year,” he said.
Beyond demands for a flat headcount, the letter also points to an ongoing “escalating criminalization of poverty.” The advocates fear that the Mamdani administration may extend “broken windows policing” — a disproven philosophy centered around aggressively tackling lower-level offenses, championed by his predecessor and former cop Eric Adams. In fact, fare evasion enforcement persists and overwhelmingly targets communities of color.
“This data makes clear that Mayor Mamdani is continuing the same aggressive enforcement approach as the Adams Administration over a $3 subway fare, one that continues to disproportionately target New Yorkers of color,” said Legal Aid Society’s Phil Desgranges in a statement. “Arresting and jailing New Yorkers for low-level fare evasion does nothing to improve public safety — it funnels people into the criminal legal system and, for many immigrants, can lead to ICE detention and deportation.”
Of course, Mamdani remains synonymous with the DSA as a long-time member. NYCC and DRUM’s sister organization DRUM Beats were two of the three organizations to initially endorse the mayor when he announced his campaign in October 2024. However, a seat at the table does not preclude public pushback. DRUM, a South Asian-led grassroots group, criticized Mamdani earlier this year when he tweeted his gratitude to the cops who shot Jabez Chakraborty, a young Bangladeshi New Yorker experiencing a mental health crisis.
“We are the movement groups who understand the outside and that is where we are trying to push him and have much more influence on,” said DRUM community organizer Simran Thind. “There’s some things that we can relay privately and work on privately, and there’s certain things [that require] outside pressure. The administration obviously may not agree with that because they don’t want to face public backlash, but that’s our role as movement organizations — to fight for the will of the people and working class communities.”
On June 25, advocates took to City Hall and delivered a hard copy of the letter. Several elected officials showed up in support, including Democratic Socialist councilmembers Alexa Avilés, Shahana Hanif, and Tiffany Cabán. State Senator Julia Salazar, another DSA-endorsed “socialist-in-office,” was also slated to attend — her office said she supports the letter.
“We’re adding 580 [cops and] $70 million to an already bloated police force,” said Cabán, “but we know that money could be put into getting kids and families out of shelter(s) [and] into housing with FHEPS vouchers. We know that we can clear the 600-plus person waitlist for mobile treatment teams.”
Joining them were likeminded progressives like councilmembers Sandy Nurse and Pierina Sanchez, as well as Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
“The prowess that was shown on Election Day on Tuesday was amazing and people said it couldn’t be done,” said Williams. “Let’s apply that prowess to policy, let’s apply that energy that we saw to the policies that keep us all safe and reverse the tendencies that we kneejerk to … As public advocate, I am at the table to make sure that it’s happening. I want everyone in this city to be safe, particularly the Black and Brown communities that have felt the brunt of unsafety for a very long timse.”
