New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is calling for a comprehensive review of the New York City Police Department’s use-of-force policies over the coming months after several high-profile incidents involving police and renewed calls from progressives for change.
“When the government uses force against a New Yorker, the standard for accountability must be at its highest,” Mamdani said. “Every New Yorker deserves to know that force will be used lawfully, carefully and only when necessary.”
The reforms include measures to prevent officers facing disciplinary charges from avoiding accountability by retiring before their cases are resolved, ensure compliance with state reporting requirements for police-involved deaths, and standardize how the department shares information with families after critical incidents. The NYPD will also submit personnel information to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services when officers retire with pending disciplinary charges, helping prevent them from being hired by other New York law enforcement agencies.
The Mamdani administration said the review follows the retirement of an officer facing disciplinary charges in the March 2024 fatal shooting of Win Rozario, a 19-year-old New Yorker who was shot by NYPD officers during a mental health crisis. The officer retired before a disciplinary trial could take place.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch acknowledged that the department failed to notify the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board during the officer’s retirement process, saying it was a result of human error while also apologizing for the mistake.
Mamdani has faced growing pressure from progressives over his decision to retain Tisch, a holdover from the previous administration, as police commissioner. Critics have also demanded that he disband the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, an armed unit frequently deployed to protests.
The calls intensified last week after the nonfatal shooting of Oscar Belgal, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Belgal was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during an attempted arrest Thursday, sparking backlash from Mamdani’s progressive base.
The Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter called on Tisch to end the department’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and said she should be fired if she could not address its concerns.
“We are disgusted by the NYPD’s response to ICE violence,” New York City’s DSA chapter wrote.
“Tisch must end NYPD complicity with ICE and ensure that the NYPD is not used as a weapon against New Yorkers exercising their right to free speech, or as a shield for ICE’s unchecked violence,” the group added. “If the Commissioner cannot put a stop to these injustices, she must be fired.”
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Meanwhile, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a socialist who won her congressional primary with Mamdani’s endorsement and is expected to represent parts of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx next year, also called for Tisch to step down.
“The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group must be disbanded as quickly as possible, and Commissioner Tisch must step down,” Chevalier wrote.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
