New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered what he said would be the first comprehensive review of the New York City Police Department’s use-of-force policies and practices in a decade.
“The review will take place over the coming months and include a robust community engagement process,” City Hall said.
The mayor’s office stated that Mamdani also unveiled a “package of reforms to strengthen accountability when police officers are accused of serious misconduct, including measures to facilitate the completion of the disciplinary process before an officer retires.”
City Hall said the announced reforms come after the retirement of one of the officers facing disciplinary charges for the tragic death of Win Rozario, a 19-year-old New Yorker who was shot and killed by NYPD officers during a mental health crisis in March 2024.”
“That officer retired before a disciplinary trial could take place,” the mayor’s office said.
“Every New Yorker deserves to know that force will be used lawfully, carefully and only when necessary,” Mamdani stated. “We have an obligation to Win’s family and to every New Yorker who calls for help in a moment of crisis.”
City Hall did not say in the announcement that the state attorney general’s special investigation office found that officers shot Rozario five times after he advanced toward them several times with a pair of scissors and after they tried to subdue him multiple times with tasers.
“A prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers’ use of deadly force against Mr. Rozario was justified and, therefore, will not seek charges,” the state office said in the report.
The mayor’s new announcement provides $2.6 million to the NYPD inspector general’s office. “The additional funding will restore staffing to a historic peak, tripling the office’s current headcount and empower the OIG to investigate policies and practices that undermine accountability for police misconduct,” it said.
Some in the NYPD reportedly said that the mayor’s comments about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly could endanger cops.
On Oct. 10, the Democratic Socialists of America demanded that Mamdani fire Jessica Tisch, commissioner of the NYPD. Tisch is Jewish and has repeatedly decried surging Jew-hatred in the Big Apple.
Antisemitic hate crimes rose 182% in Mamdani’s first month in office, and Jews have been disproportionately targeted by hate crimes in the city for the entirety of the mayor’s tenure in City Hall.
