Zohran Mamdani orders use-of-force review for New York City police

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ordered a review of the New York City Police Department’s 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 said it would introduce a “package of reforms” in addition to the review, to “strengthen accountability when police officers are accused of serious misconduct”.

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.

“That officer retired before a disciplinary trial could take place,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.

Among other measures Mamdani announced is $2.6m in additional funding for the Office of the Inspector General, which investigates NYPD policies and misconduct.

Monday’s statement also calls for a new notification system to ensure disciplinary hearings are completed before an officer retires, and it includes a renewed push for the department to comply with state-level reporting requirements about police-involved deaths.

Progressive pressure

The announcement comes amid pressure from Mamdani’s fellow progressives to enforce accountability at the city’s police department.

Much of the focus has fallen on a division within the NYPD called the Strategic Response Group, a rapid-response unit that addresses protests, major events and “civil disorder”.

Earlier this month, 17 state-level politicians and political nominees, including congressional candidates Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, called for the group to be disbanded. Both Valdez and Chevalier were endorsed by Mamdani.

In a statement, the politicians denounced the Strategic Response Group’s deployment during protests against a recent US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation.

On October 8, an ICE officer shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal while he was inside an SUV last week with his five-year-old son. The shooting, which took place in New York’s Marble Hill neighbourhood, sparked days of demonstrations against ICE’s tactics, as well as a police response.

Chevalier wrote in a post on social media that she was “shoved to the ground by an officer” during the protests. She also claimed to have observed other instances of excessive violence.

“When I was in Marble Hill last night I saw NYPD officers rapidly escalating violence,” Chevalier said.

“I witnessed unmarked law enforcement cars hitting protesters as NYPD officers pushed people out of its path.”

Mamdani condemned the shooting and called for Belgal’s release from federal custody.

Calls for police chief’s removal

Critics have frequently pointed to such incidents as examples of why greater police oversight is necessary.

Reported use of force within the NYPD has increased over the last decade, including physical force, the deployment of firearms, and the use of electrical weapons like tasers.

There were 12,348 reported use-of-force incidents in 2025, compared with 4,087 in 2016, when the department first started collecting such statistics.

Crime in New York City, however, has been on the downturn. Earlier this month, the city reported the “fewest shooting incidents, shooting victims, and murders” in the first nine months of the year and in the third quarter of the year, compared with any time in recorded history.

Major crime, which includes murder, rape, felony assault and grand larceny, declined 9.4 percent in the third quarter and 6.6 percent compared with the same period last year.

Still, Chevalier and other progressive politicians remained critical of the excess force authorised under the city’s police leadership. They have called on Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who was originally appointed by Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, to step down.

The commissioner is appointed by the mayor. She can be removed either by the mayor or the governor of New York State.

According to recent reporting from The Atlantic magazine, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul made retaining Tisch as police commissioner a condition of her endorsement for Mamdani in the 2024 mayoral election.

In a statement to the magazine, Mamdani questioned that framing, saying Hochul’s support for keeping Tisch 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 in the works prior to the October 8 ICE shooting and the protests that followed.