Zohran Mamdani orders NYPD use-of-force review and announces accountability reforms

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani directed the NYPD on October 12 to conduct its first comprehensive review of use-of-force policies and practices in a decade. The review, planned for the coming months, will include community input and comes alongside changes to oversight funding and disciplinary procedures. The announcement follows an officer’s retirement before a disciplinary trial over the 2024 shooting death of Win Rozario.

Mamdani said the review should examine how the department guides and trains officers while strengthening public trust. ‘When the government uses force against a New Yorker, the standard for accountability must be at its highest,’ he said in the city’s announcement. The city has announced a review, not findings or a new use-of-force policy.

What the NYPD use-of-force review will cover

The mayor’s office described the exercise as a comprehensive look at NYPD policies and practices, with community engagement over the coming months. It did not publish a detailed schedule, terms of reference or completion date. That leaves the specific policy questions, the form of public participation and any eventual recommendations to be established as the work proceeds.

The review concerns a large department: the Associated Press reported that New York City has about 34,000 uniformed police officers and more than 15,000 civilian employees. Its conclusions could inform guidance and training across the force, although the city has not announced particular changes to either. There is also no completed review from which to judge an effect on force incidents.

Changes to oversight and officer discipline

The mayor’s office also announced a $2.6 million increase for the Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD. It said the money would restore staffing to a historic peak and triple the office’s current headcount. The announcement does not specify how the added funding will be divided among the office’s activities, so the staffing commitment is the clearest stated measure of its intended effect.

The NYPD has already implemented a notification system meant to help ensure disciplinary proceedings finish before an officer retires, according to the city and AP. The department also plans to formalize its existing practice of notifying New York state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services and submitting personnel information for decertification when an officer retires with pending disciplinary charges. The city says the state notification is intended to deter other New York law-enforcement agencies from hiring such officers.

Those steps follow the retirement of an officer facing departmental charges over the March 2024 shooting death of 19-year-old Win Rozario during a mental-health crisis. The officer retired before the disciplinary trial, the mayor’s office said. AP reported that the officer was not criminally charged. A criminal charging decision and a departmental disciplinary case are separate processes; the announced procedure addresses the latter.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department should have notified the Civilian Complaint Review Board during the retirement process, according to AP. She apologized for what she called human error. The new notification system addresses that procedural gap, but the city has not shown whether it will prevent an officer from leaving before a future case is resolved.

Police union response and what remains open

Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, criticized the plan. AP reported that he called it an attempt to appease the mayor’s base and said it would not make New Yorkers safer. His response highlights a dispute over the proposed direction, before the review has produced recommendations or the new procedures have a demonstrated record.

Al Jazeera reported that NYPD figures recorded 12,348 use-of-force incidents in 2025, compared with 4,087 in 2016, when the department began collecting those statistics. The figures show the totals cited in its report, but the available account does not establish whether the two years are directly comparable or what explains the difference. They cannot, on their own, show what the announced review will change.

A City Hall spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the review was already in the works before an October 8 ICE shooting and the protests that followed. The timing matters because the city’s announcement should not be read as identifying that shooting as the trigger. For now, the concrete next steps are the review and the stated oversight and discipline measures; their results remain to be seen.