[Gothamist] Police reformers call on Mamdani to rein in NYPD's quality of life crackdown

By Liam Quigley and Elizabeth Kim

Dozens of community groups sent Mayor Zohran Mamdani a letter on Thursday calling for him to scale back the NYPD’s crackdown on low-level offenses.

The groups, largely made up of criminal justice advocates, criticized Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s focus on “quality of life” arrests, arguing the approach criminalizes poverty. The letter also called on Mamdani to halt plans to hire 580 new police officers, and said the money should instead be used to provide more social services to low-income communities.

“New Yorkers elected you because they believed in your vision for a New York City in which we can all thrive, including the most marginalized New Yorkers who are suffering in public and have been met by past administrations with brutality, arrests and tickets,” the letter reads. “This vision must include an approach to public safety that is rooted in care, not criminalization.”

Roughly 70 groups signed the letter, including Brooklyn Defender Services, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Desis Rising Up & Moving and Make the Road New York. The groups plan to hold a rally on the steps of City Hall on Thursday.

The letter and rally are the latest signs of growing frustration among some advocates who think Mamdani isn’t delivering on his campaign promises around police reform.

Tisch’s push to enforce low-level crimes pre-dates Mamdani’s tenure as mayor. She took the helm at the NYPD under previous Mayor Eric Adams while top department officials were under federal investigation. Mamdani kept Tisch on as police commissioner when he took office.

Under her direction, the NYPD has deployed Q-Teams, which focus on quality of life issues identified by 311 requests.

Violent crime rates have fallen to record lows under Tisch’s tenure. When asked about the letter, a spokesperson for Mamdani pointed to previous comments the mayor has made on his policing strategy that highlight the city’s drop in crime.

Edwin Santana, a community organizer with the group Freedom Agenda, which signed the letter, said Mamdani needs to choose a new police commissioner if he is to cement his legacy as a police reformer.

“I don't know why he's keeping Jessica Tisch on, but I think that he's going to maybe tarnish his administration and his reputation if he continues to have her deal with these broken window policies and just coming down on communities hard,” Santana said.

The groups argued in the letter that TIsch’s crackdown on low-level offenses has coincided with an increase in people dying in police custody.

Yul-san Liem, deputy director of police reform group The Justice Committee, said that Mamdani should exercise his power as mayor and force Tisch to back off on her hardline approach to low-level offenses.

“Safety does not come from criminalizing people,” she said. “It comes from meeting people's needs. Public safety can be way better served by using the tens of millions of dollars for one year that it would cost to hire those new officers to invest in the kinds of services and support that will increase New Yorkers' safety for the long term.”

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