New York City Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is reportedly pushing to strip the NYPD commissioner’s power to discipline officers and transfer the authority to the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), which is tasked with police oversight.
Mamdani, an avowed Democratic socialist, told reporters on Tuesday that he wants to reverse the process on disciplinary matters, so the CCRB has the final say, instead of having the panel issue recommendations to the NYPD commissioner, as occurs under the current process.
“I think that what it needs to be is that it is a body that is actually empowered so that it works,” Mamdani said, according to the New York Post, adding, “Its oversight is one that extends to more than simply a recommendation.”
He reiterated the idea at another event.
“What I would do is ensure that the recommendations of the CCRB be understood to be the final voice of the question of accountability,” he said at an unrelated Manhattan press conference.
In a statement to the Post, New York City Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said that granting the CCRB final disciplinary authority “will spell the end of policing in this city.
“Police officers know that we have zero chance of receiving a fair hearing from the anti-police activists who dominate CCRB’s board,” Hendry said. “If Assemblyman Mamdani pursues this plan, he will prove that all his talk about ‘outreach’ to police officers is a sham — he’s running to defund the police after all.”
In the weeks since his upset primary victory in June, the Queens state lawmaker has attempted to distance himself from his prior calls to defund the police, reportedly claiming he’s been apologizing to individual police officers as he meets them on the campaign trail.
Meanwhile, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) said that Mamdani’s proposal was the easiest way to spur a mass exodus from the NYPD.
“Further empowering the CCRB will destroy the morale of this agency and exacerbate our current problems with recruitment and retainment,” SBA President Vincent Vallelong told the Post. “If that’s Mamdani’s vision for our department he will never have the support of the men and women who keep this city safe 24/7.”
Mamdani has already come under intense scrutiny for previous attacks on the NYPD, including calling the department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” on social media in 2020.
The mayoral hopeful could assemble a Charter Review Commission if elected which would be responsible for creating a ballot question on whether to allow the CCRB to have the last word on disciplinary decisions.
Vallelong blasted any attempt to strip the police commissioner of disciplinary power in favor of the civilian board.
“Any attempt to dilute the power of the police commissioner and hand more power to the CCRB will be strongly opposed by the SBA and met with fierce resistance,” the SBA president told the Post.
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