NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani says his administration is 'hard at work' dismantling NYPD unit that polices protests and combats terrorism

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that "we are hard at work" determining how to disband the NYPD’s controversial Strategic Response Group that he has long accused of abusive tactics when policing political protests.

He plans to split the group’s two main responsibilities — combating terrorism and policing protests — which is a promise he made last year during his run for mayor. The SRG has been the subject of lawsuits and a settlement over its tactics during protests.

"I continue to believe that we need to disband the SRG, and I’m currently in conversations with the police commissioner about the ways in which we can do so that are operational," Mamdani said Wednesday when asked whether funding for the unit could be cut in the forthcoming municipal budget.

He added: "We don’t believe there should be a unit that has both counterterrorism responsibilities and responsibilities responding to protests. The conflation of the two is part of this issue."

But until the unit is disbanded, he said, it would continue to handle protests. He said Wednesday he knew in advance that the SRG would be policing a demonstration Tuesday evening at a TriBeCa Hilton Garden Inn hotel that protesters occupied to criticize the presence of federal immigration agents allegedly staying there while in town to execute the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.

In the hotel, dozens of protesters were arrested — by the SRG.

"We know that until we deliver this in an operational manner, that the SRG will continue to be used, and that is why we are hard at work to resolving this issue," Mamdani said. "The NYPD continues to respond to protests, as is their responsibility, and we have also emphasized the need for all of those responses, as always, to be ones that respect New Yorkers’ exercising of First Amendment activity."

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has been a supporter of the unit. In an appearance in June 2025 on "Morning Joe" on the cable channel now known as MS NOW, she said they are "really expert" in policing protests.

On Wednesday, Mamdani praised the protesters in TriBeCa, who were demonstrating against what agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other entities are doing in Minneapolis, particularly the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

"I also commend New Yorkers who exercise their constitutional right to protest, especially in bringing attention to the horrific abuses of ICE across this country, and I think especially right now in Minneapolis," said Mamdani, who has been arrested while protesting in the past.

The SRG has been controversial since being established over a decade ago, unveiled initially as a rapid response force to handle terrorism and extreme violence. In the years since, however, the SRG’s ambit broadened and the unit has been accused of disproportionate and excessive force, including during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Civil rights groups, along with state Attorney General Letitia James, sued and later settled with the NYPD to restrict what force could be deployed by the unit.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.