He has been calling retired police officers to ask what they think about his public safety plans.
He had a video meeting with active officers to find out how he can win over the rank and file.
Over biryani, chicken tikka and roti at a Pakistani restaurant in Queens, he listened as two dozen officers peppered him with questions about his past calls to defund the police.
Slowly and carefully, Zohran Mamdani has been seeking to make inroads with the New York City police, a constituency that views him with deep skepticism and even hostility.
Many officers have not forgotten comments he made five years ago, when, amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, he called for defunding the Police Department. Or his comments on social media that same year calling the police “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.” And many officers are wary of his plans to create a Department of Community Safety that would dispatch mental health workers, rather than the police, to respond to 911 calls for people in crisis.
Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman and democratic socialist who is leading in the polls after winning the Democratic primary, has called his past remarks “out of step” with his current views.
Nonetheless, police union leaders are prophesying a mass exodus of officers should he win in November. Louis Turco, the head of the lieutenants’ union, said he would need to hear an apology from Mr. Mamdani before he even considered meeting with him.
Rodney Harrison, a former chief of department, who has praised parts of Mr. Mamdani’s plans, said the candidate “has an uphill battle.” He added, “It’s important that he says some things — and actions speak louder than words — that show he supports the rank and file.”
If Mr. Mamdani wins in November, he will oversee the nation’s largest police force, a department of more than 33,000 officers and 15,000 civilians that operates on a budget of about $6 billion.
Mr. Mamdani does not need the support of the rank and file to win the election. But no mayor wants to risk an open display of defiance from the police, as Bill de Blasio faced early in his administration.
“You take every opportunity you can to build a relationship,” Mr. Mamdani said Monday during an event at Columbia University. “Behind every headline, behind every caricature, I’ve found, is a New Yorker just trying to do their best.”
In July, 13 law enforcement unions endorsed Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain who is last in the polls. The Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest law enforcement union — and one that supported President Trump during the 2020 campaign — has yet to endorse any mayoral candidate. Patrick Hendry, its president, said Mr. Mamdani “has never reached out to us,” but Mr. Hendry expressed a willingness to sit down with him.
“We have always been open to meeting with any elected leader” to talk about “our members’ safety and rights,” he said in a statement.
At Columbia University on Monday, Mr. Mamdani spoke for about an hour about his plans for public safety and said that not only has he met officers who support his strategy of diverting 911 calls, but they have endorsed his campaign. A group called the Jamaica Integrated Bangladeshi Officers Network endorsed Mr. Mamdani in recent weeks.
Karam Chowdhury, a deputy inspector and president of the network, said in a statement that Mr. Mamdani supported “reforming, not defunding, our police, ensuring they serve and protect without undermining the trust they’ve worked hard to earn.”
The candidate, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, has found strong support among Bangladeshi officers, a growing contingent in the diverse department.
In July, when a gunman killed four people at a Park Avenue office building, including Didarul Islam, a Bangladeshi officer, political opponents pounced, quickly bringing up Mr. Mamdani’s prior comments.
But Detective Islam’s family embraced Mr. Mamdani, inviting him to sit with them during the funeral. The candidate has visited them four times, including last week when he brought gifts for the children and ate a traditional Bangladeshi lunch, according to Detective Islam’s family.
Shamsul Haque, who retired in March as a lieutenant commander, met Mr. Mamdani about a year and a half ago, during a voter registration event in Queens. He was prepared to dislike Mr. Mamdani, he said, but as they talked, he found him to be “gentleman-like” and “pragmatic.” In March, Mr. Haque organized the buffet lunch at the Pakistani restaurant.
Mr. Haque said Mr. Mamdani had listened quietly as officers expressed worries about his comments. “He said that people who are committing major crimes should not be on the street,” Mr. Haque said. “It was kind of a sigh of relief that he understands this.”
He is now volunteering for the campaign and wrote an opinion essay endorsing Mr. Mamdani in the New York Daily News.
Mr. Harrison, who served for more than 30 years in the department, praised parts of Mr. Mamdani’s public safety plan on his LinkedIn page, where he is followed by other law enforcement officials.
He said the strategy of diverting 911 calls would help keep officers safe “by ensuring they’re more available to back one another during high-risk jobs.”
But many officers fear the strategy would fail, because of the legal challenges of hospitalizing mentally ill people against their will, as well as officers’ past experiences with health workers who they believe have been too afraid to confront people in a crisis, Lieutenant Turco said.
“If you want to get the emotionally disturbed away from the police, be my guest,” he said. “But the problem is, who is the individual who is going to have to use force to get that person to the hospital?”
Mr. Mamdani must find common ground with the police to avoid the tensions that plagued Mr. de Blasio, said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy at New York University.
Mr. de Blasio tried to bring changes to the department, but he angered the rank and file. He defended a staffer who had ridiculed the police on social media and gave a speech describing how he had warned his biracial son that he could have problems with the police. The tension culminated in a painfully public protest in 2015 by officers who turned their backs on Mr. de Blasio at a police funeral.
“You can’t be mayor of New York without having the support of the Police Department,” Professor Moss said. “De Blasio never recovered from the loss of respect police gave him.”
Mr. de Blasio balanced calls for reform with his choice for commissioner: William Bratton, a well-established leader whose experience running the department in the 1990s comforted many police unions.
Mr. Mamdani has indicated he may be willing to go the same route by showing an openness to keeping the current commissioner, Jessica Tisch, if he is elected, said Kenneth Corey, a former chief of department.
“He has to find someone who has the reputation, the gravitas and the integrity to assure New Yorkers and the men and women of the N.Y.P.D. that we are in good hands and that public safety is going to continue,” he said.
Key differences between Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Tisch, who was appointed by Mr. Adams, were evident on Monday.
For example, Mr. Mamdani said he supported a City Council resolution to abolish a database of people the department considers gang members. Ms. Tisch has described the database as a crucial crime-fighting tool and has called efforts to get rid of it “reckless.”
Mr. Mamdani praised Ms. Tisch twice at the event — once for her “uprooting of corruption” and again for reportedly telling the U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, that New York did not need the presence of the National Guard.
Retaining the commissioner could reassure business leaders and signal to officers that Mr. Mamdani is not looking to shake up the department dramatically. Several allies have encouraged Mr. Mamdani to keep her, including Letitia James, the state attorney general.
Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, who endorsed Mr. Mamdani, said she had advised him to keep Ms. Tisch, calling her a “strong, independent, pragmatic leader.”
“Her continuity in his administration would speak volumes to his ability to thoughtfully balance public safety and reform,” Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn said.
On Monday, Mr. Mamdani said he was not prepared to make hiring decisions yet, including for police commissioner.
In July, two people familiar with Ms. Tisch’s thinking said she was willing to stay in the job regardless of the outcome of the election. Publicly, she has declined to talk about her plans.
“As I’ve said many times, it is not appropriate for the police commissioner to be directly involved or to seem to be involved in electoral politics,” she said during an interview with Good Day New York alongside Mr. Adams, who sat next to her, a stoic expression on his face.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons is the City Hall bureau chief for The Times, covering Mayor Eric Adams and his administration.
The post Mamdani, Facing Mistrust Within the N.Y.P.D., Reaches Out to Officers appeared first on New York Times.
