Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered a review of New York City police use of force for the first time in a decade, amid renewed pressure from his progressive base for law enforcement reform.
On Monday, the city announced it would introduce a “package of reforms” in addition to the review, to “strengthen accountability when police officers are accused of serious misconduct.”
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The New York Police Department (NYPD) is the largest police force in the United States.
The reforms follow the retirement of a police officer involved in the shooting death of 19-year-old Win Rozario during a reported mental health crisis in 2024.
“This officer retired before a disciplinary trial could take place,” the town hall said in a statement.
Other measures Mamdani announced included $2.6 million in additional funding for the Office of Inspector General, which investigates NYPD policies and misconduct.
Monday’s statement also calls for a new reporting system to ensure disciplinary hearings are completed before an officer retires, and it includes a new effort for the department to comply with state-level reporting requirements on police-involved deaths.
Progressive pressure
The announcement comes as Mamdani’s progressive colleagues are pushing for the city’s police to be held accountable.
Much of the focus has been on a division within the NYPD called the Strategic Response Group, a rapid response unit that deals with protests, major events and “civil unrest.”
Earlier this month, 17 state-level politicians and political candidates, including congressional candidates Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, called for the group to be disbanded. Valdez and Chevalier were supported by Mamdani.
In a statement, the politicians denounced the deployment of the Strategic Response Group during protests against a recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation.
On October 8, an ICE agent fatally shot Oscar Belgal, 28, while he was riding in an SUV with his five-year-old son. The shooting, which took place in New York’s Marble Hill neighborhood, sparked days of protests against ICE’s tactics, as well as a police response.
Chevalier wrote in a social media post that she was “pushed to the ground by an officer” during the protests. She also claims to have observed other cases of excessive violence.
“When I was in Marble Hill last night, I saw NYPD officers rapidly escalating violence,” Chevalier said.
“I saw unmarked law enforcement cars hitting protesters as NYPD officers pushed people out of their way.”
Mamdani condemned the shooting and called for Belgal’s release from federal custody.
Demands dismissal of police chief
Critics have often cited such incidents as examples of the need for greater police oversight.
Reported use of force within the NYPD has increased over the past decade, including physical force, the deployment of firearms, and the use of electrical weapons like Tasers.
In 2025, 12,348 use-of-force incidents were reported, up from 4,087 in 2016, when the department began collecting such statistics.
However, crime in New York is declining. Earlier this month, the city reported “the fewest incidents of shootings, gunshot victims and murders” during the first nine months of the year and third quarter of the year, compared to any other time in history.
Major crimes, which include murder, rape, felonious assault and robbery, decreased 9.4 percent in the third quarter and 6.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
Nevertheless, Chevalier and other progressive politicians remained critical of the excessive force permitted under the direction of the city police. They called on Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, originally appointed by Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, to resign.
The commissioner is appointed by the mayor. It can be revoked by either the mayor or the governor of the State of New York.
According to a recent article in The Atlantic magazine, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has made Tisch’s retention as police commissioner a condition of her support for Mamdani in the 2024 mayoral election.
In a statement to the magazine, Mamdani questioned that wording, saying Hochul’s support for Tisch’s retention was “more of a recommendation” than a demand.
A New York City Hall spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the use of force review was already underway before the October 8 ICE shooting and the protests that followed.
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