On Oct. 12, Mayor Zohran Mamdani directed the NYPD to conduct a comprehensive review of its use-of-force policies and practices, according to a press release from the Office of the Mayor.
The review is the first in a decade and comes as the Civilian Complaint Review Board reported historically high levels of complaints against the New York City Police Department, reaching more than 5,500 for three years in a row.
Mamdani also introduced a package of reforms to strengthen accountability when police officers are accused of serious misconduct.
One reform includes measures to facilitate the completion of disciplinary processes before an officer retires, following a March 2024 case when an NYPD officer shot and killed 19-year-old Win Rozario and retired before a disciplinary trial could take place.
“When the government uses force against a New Yorker, the standard for accountability must be at its highest,” Mamdani said. “We have an obligation to Win’s family and to every New Yorker who calls for help in a moment of crisis.”
The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, however, disagrees with the comprehensive review and criticized the processes of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, reported abc7.
“There should be no review of the NYPD’s use of force policies,” said the PBA president, “without a corresponding review of the blatantly biased and unjust way those policies are interpreted by the Civilian Complaint Review Board.”
In addition to changes to retirement notifications, the Mamdani administration will also increase funding for the Inspector Generation for the NYPD by $2.6 million. According to the Office of the Mayor, this additional funding “will restore staffing to a historic peak, tripling the office’s current headcount” in order to empower the capacity to investigate NYPD practices and policies.
Other policy changes include ensuring compliance with the STAT Act — which requires reporting and tracking of demographic data on arrests — and standardization of the NYPD process for sharing information with New Yorkers following a critical incident.
Following the announcement, abc7 reported that many urged Mamdani to also remove Jessica Tisch as police commissioner. The Democratic Socialists of America, for example, have alleged that Tisch is facilitating ICE activity in New York.
Mamdani rejected calls to remove Tisch.
“Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner. I have no plans to change that,” Mamdani said. “The reason that I made the decision to have Jessica Tisch as the police commissioner was because of her record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city.”
