Council Weighs Bill for Mamdani's Promised Community Safety Agency

The New York City Council is set to hold a hearing Friday on legislation to establish a Department of Community Safety, a central campaign promise from Mayor Zohran Mamdani aimed at overhauling how the city responds to violence and mental health crises. Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler is sponsoring the bill, which he says already has 34 cosponsors, enough for a veto-proof majority. Restler said the goal is to expand violence-interruption work tied to the city's Crisis Management System, better coordinate homeless and mental health services across agencies, and eventually allow trained responders rather than police to handle more 911 calls around mental health emergencies. The push follows renewed scrutiny of NYPD responses to people in crisis, including the recent police shooting of Jabez Chakraborty in Queens and a 2024 lawsuit from Raul de la Cruz, who was shot by officers during a mental health episode. Mamdani has so far created only a scaled-back Office of Community Safety by executive order, short of the full agency he pitched while campaigning. Political observers say he remains under pressure from progressive supporters to follow through, especially since other public safety pledges — like scrapping the NYPD gang database — remain unfulfilled. Restler said he hopes the new department will mark a shift away from broken-windows-style policing.