NYC Mayor Mamdani launches community safety office, inching forward a campaign promise

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has created a new community safety office intended to shift some mental health crisis response away from police

NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday unveiled a new office dedicated to community safety, a tentative first step toward fulfilling a key campaign pledge to reduce the role of police in responding to mental health emergencies.

Mamdani initially envisioned a $1 billion-per-year agency that would dispatch civilian workers, instead of police, in non-criminal emergencies. His initial proposal is far more modest, though, launching with only two staff members and few immediate plans to shift the city's approach to 911 calls.

It will soon scale up, eventually “ushering in a new era for our city’s crisis response,” Mamdani said, as he signed the executive order at City Hall flanked by criminal justice advocates.

“Officers have to handle 200,000 mental health calls a year,” the Democratic mayor said. “That is not a system that is working. Today marks the end of it.”

For now, he said his administration will look to expand funding and support for an existing program, B-HEARD, which dispatches mental health workers in response to 911 calls for people in emotional distress.