The Democratic mayoral nominee wants to overhaul New York City’s approach to policing and mental health issues.

by Mona Zhang
July 21, 2025
PoliticoPro

Zohran Mamdani plans to invest more than a billion dollars to overhaul how New York City approaches public safety. But it’s still unclear how the Democratic mayoral nominee would handle the NYPD’s staffing crisis if elected. …

… Indeed, Mamdani’s plan includes proposals that have been implemented in other U.S. cities and in New York City on a smaller scale. For example, his proposal would scale up existing programs like the city’s Crisis Management System, which uses teams of violence interrupters to respond to and prevent gun violence. …

… Mamdani’s proposals aren’t new. Many of their component parts have been implemented in other — albeit much smaller — areas.
After a violence interrupter program was implemented in Brooklyn’s East New York section, gun injury rates fell 50 percent — compared to a 5 percent decline in nearby Flatbush, a neighborhood without such a program, according to a 2017 study from John Jay College.

Under a similar program in the South Bronx, gun injuries declined 37 percent, and shooting injuries declined by 63 percent, compared to 29 and 17 percent reductions, respectively, in East Harlem, a neighborhood that also lacks such a program.

While other factors could have contributed to those declines, “the presence of Cure Violence appears to be a significant influence on levels of community violence,” the study found.

[ go to the article in PoliticoPro  ]