Mayor Zohran Mamdani seeks to overhaul how NYPD handles mental crisis calls

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is set Thursday to order the creation of a new $260 million office to reconsider how the NYPD and other agencies respond to mental crisis calls, gun crimes, hate crimes and domestic violence, according to a person briefed on the plans.

The creation, by executive order, of what is to be called the mayoral Office of Community Safety, falls short of fulfilling one of Mamdani's signature campaign pledges: an entirely new Department of Community Safety, to be funded at $1.1 billion, to find ways to supplement, and potentially sometimes supplant, when the NYPD responds to 911 calls involving mentally troubled people.

The office will be overseen by a new deputy mayor, Renita Francois, who lives in Valley Stream and worked in the de Blasio administration on criminal justice issues. She’ll be Mamdani’s first Black deputy mayor. She is expected to move from Long Island to New York City, where senior mayoral officials must live. In articles published in recent years, Francois argued that delivering genuine public safety requires more than just paying attention to crime statistics. 

The creation of the office was reported first by The New York Times.

Last week, Newsday reported that Mamdani, despite his soaring promises to govern "expansively and audaciously," is proceeding incrementally and cautiously so far in his first three months in office. He has kept much of the status quo with the NYPD.

Creating a new, bona fide city agency — there are dozens such as police, fire, parks sanitation and correction, some over a century old — would require the acquiesce of the City Council. A bill to create the office has only 28 sponsors, short of what is needed to overcome the apparent apprehension of the council speaker, Julie Menin. 

Because the administration is creating only a mayoral office, rather than a city agency, a future mayor can shut it down.

The Department of Community Safety, as described in Mamdani's campaign platform early last year before he became a household name, promised a "whole-of-government approach" where "community safety will be prioritized like never before in NYC."

"The Department will invest in citywide mental health programs and crisis response — including deploying dedicated outreach workers in 100 subway stations, providing medical services in vacant commercial units, and increasing Transit Ambassadors to assist New Yorkers on their journeys — expand evidence-based gun violence prevention programs, and increase funding to hate violence prevention programs by 800%," the website says.

The office’s creation was motivated in part by NYPD killings of mentally troubled people in crisis, a status quo Mamdani criticized during his insurgent run for mayor last year.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

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