Council grills Mamdani's Office of Community Safety as bill for a full department gets its first hearing

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's promise to shift some public safety work away from the police got its closest look yet at City Hall on Friday. Two City Council committees, Public Safety and Governmental Operations, held a joint hearing on the new Office of Community Safety and on Int. 403, a bill that would turn it into a full city Department of Community Safety, according to the Council's legislative record.

What the office told the Council

Commissioner Ayesha Delany-Brumsey, who reports to Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Renita Francois, said her office is in daily contact with the NYPD, meets weekly with police leadership and receives police data and alerts every day, City & State reported.

When Mamdani created the office by executive order in March, he placed five existing offices under it: Crime Victim Services, Neighborhood Safety and the Prevention of Gun Violence, Ending Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, the Prevention of Hate Crimes, and Community Mental Health. Council Members Frank Morano and Phil Wong argued that the merger only added red tape. Delany-Brumsey defended it as a way to treat violence more comprehensively, saying that people do not experience violence in isolation, according to City & State.

Speaker Julie Menin asked whether the city needs more police officers, noting the mayor's earlier plan to add 580 officers before he backed away from it. Delany-Brumsey said her office does not support a larger police force. Menin also raised increases in felony assaults, rapes and hate crimes and asked how the office is using its $271 million budget to respond. The commissioner said the office should be held accountable and is in the middle of a strategic planning process on how its five units can bring those numbers down, City & State reported.

The bill for a full department

Int. 403, introduced on Jan. 29, would create a Department of Community Safety led by a commissioner appointed by the mayor. It would run around-the-clock offices in each borough, oversee contracts for violence prevention and alternatives to incarceration, and carry out field work such as outreach, safety patrols and conflict mediation, according to a summary of the bill on Hearing Hearings, which tracks Council records. It would take effect 180 days after becoming law.

The lead sponsor, Council Member Lincoln Restler, told Gothamist he has 34 co-sponsors, a veto-proof majority, and that Menin helped schedule the hearing. He said the department should expand nonprofit violence interruption work, coordinate homeless and mental health services across agencies, and offer real-time responses to some emergency calls around the clock. He also said there are still many conversations to have with the mayor's and speaker's teams to reach a deal.

As a candidate, Mamdani pitched a much larger agency that would let 911 dispatchers send non-police responders to more mental health and emergency calls. Gothamist notes that other campaign pledges, including scrapping the NYPD gang database and disbanding the Strategic Response Group, have not happened.

Also on the agenda

The committees also heard Int. 414, which would create a three-digit gun violence intervention hotline, and Int. 667, which would let people do community service instead of paying some littering fines, according to the Council's record. None of the bills has had a committee vote yet.