NYCLU on Mayor Mamdani’s New Office of Community Safety

NEW YORK CITY — Today Mayor Mamdani announced the creation of the Office of Community Safety to consolidate oversight of the City’s violence prevention and mental health crisis response programs. In response, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement attributable to Executive Director Donna Lieberman:

“Mayor Mamdani’s new Office of Community Safety is an important step toward a vision of public safety that prioritizes supports and prevention, not policing and penalization. It recognizes the need for non-police responses and services across a continuum of care, and the coordination of response programs within a new office with a mandate for change is reason for optimism. The NYCLU looks forward to working with the Mayor to build on these initial initiatives to deliver bold action.

“We believe any new approach must recognize that mental health professionals and peer advocates are best positioned to respond to mental health crises. We have seen the dangers of police responses to mental health crises too many times, most recently in the cases of Win Rozario and Jabez Chakraborty. The success of any new approach will require being clear-eyed about the failures of existing responses, as well as deep engagement with communities and experts to develop its replacement.

“As the Mayor’s new office grows, we urge the Administration to remove police from its default mental health response and to instead prioritize a well-funded community-based model of mental health care to meet people in need.”

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