Zohran Mamdani, the most left-leaning candidate in this summer’s mayoral election, rolled out a public safety plan Tuesday that hinges on launching a new city agency tasked with using non-police emergency responses to combat complex problems like mental illness, homelessness and gun violence.
The agency would be called the Department of Community Safety and have an annual budget of $1.1 billion, according to the plan from Mamdani, a state Assembly member representing western Queens whose mayoral campaign has gained significant traction recently, especially among younger voters.
Setting himself apart from many other candidates in the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, isn’t proposing to hire more NYPD officers as part of his public safety plan.
His blueprint argues more cops won’t be necessary as his newly envisioned agency would absorb certain responsibilities currently in the NYPD’s wheelhouse, including responding to mental health emergencies. That will, in turn, free up officers — who have “a critical role to play” — to focus on more pressing police work, the plan maintains.
“Its mission will be to prevent violence before it happens by taking a public health approach to safety,” the plan states of the Department of Community Safety.
According to the 18-page plan, $605 million of the agency’s imagined budget would come from existing programs that would be transferred into the Department of Community Safety regime. That includes entities like City Hall’s Public Safety Division.
The remaining $455 million would be new spending. Mamdani’s plan says he wants to allocate that tranche by making “better use of existing funding, finding government efficiencies and cutting waste — combined with newly generated revenue where needed.”
Mamdani spokesman Andrew Bard Epstein said tax hikes on New York’s wealthiest individuals and corporations — which would require state government action — could be part of a prescription to secure that funding.
Bard Epstein wouldn’t name specific agencies that would be targeted for cuts to bankroll Mamdani’s new agency. He did note Mamdani has long argued the NYPD’s budget contains lots of bloat, including too much money earmarked for overtime and specialized police units like the Strategic Response Group.
The largest expenditure floated in Mamdani’s plan is a $362.8 million commitment to expanding the city’s mental health outreach programs. Among various other initiatives, that money would be spent on launching a Community Mental Health Navigators program, under which the city would set up outposts in every neighborhood across the five boroughs and in the subways where trained professionals would service individuals suffering from mental health crises.
Additionally, Mamdani’s plan proposes a 150% increase in funding for the B-HEARD program, which deploys health professionals, including EMTs and paramedics, in response to 911 mental health calls. With such an expansion, there would be at least one B-HEARD team in every neighborhood in the city, according to Mamdani’s team.
As it relates to emergency dispatch calls, Mamdani’s plan proposes expanding the 988 hotline, which New Yorkers can currently use to request non-NYPD responses during non-emergencies related to mental health. Mamdani’s plan says that hotline should be expanded so non-police responses can be requested during emergencies, too.
On homelessness, Mamdani’s plan contains few new policy proposals, but argues his pushes for increased outreach — combined with a “Housing First” policy focus — would help stabilize individuals’ lives and put them on a path to permanent housing.
On gun violence, Mamdani proposes increasing spending by 275% on the city’s Crisis Management System, made up of teams of violence interrupters who aim to prevent shootings before they happen. The plan cites data showing decreases in shootings in areas where such teams are operating.
Mamdani is likely to draw heat with his public safety plan from the more moderate candidates in the mayoral field, including ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s polling as the race’s front-runner and has vowed, if elected, to hire 5,000 new NYPD officers.
