As a part of a $250 million public security plan, Andrew Cuomo mentioned Monday he desires to just about double the scale of a specialised NYPD unit as controversy across the division and police funding has heated up on this yr’s mayoral race marketing campaign path.
In a day press convention in Midtown Manhattan, Cuomo, who’s working as an unbiased in November’s mayoral contest, mentioned he’d if elected add 400 officers to the ranks of the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group.
Cuomo additionally used the event to take a shot at Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who following final week’s Midtown capturing mentioned he was backing away from earlier calls to defund the NYPD. Cuomo and Mayor Adams have each seized on Mamdani’s previous tweets about desirous to defund the division, arguing they present his true emotions.
Shaped in 2015 largely to reply to harmful incidents like lively shooter conditions in addition to mass protests, the SRG at present has about 500 members, so Cuomo’s proposed new hires would mark a big growth.
The SRG has drawn criticism from civil rights advocates and Democratic elected officers involved about its members dealing with disproportionately excessive charges of extreme pressure accusations, particularly because it pertains to protest response.
Mamdani, who’s polling as the favourite to win November’s election, has mentioned he would disband the SRG and substitute it with a unit targeted squarely on tactical deployment, slicing out the mass protest response element.
“I think it would be a tremendous mistake to disband them,” Cuomo instructed reporters at his Midtown press convention, noting its members responded to final week’s horrific Park Ave. capturing that left an NYPD officer lifeless.
Members of the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group arrive at Fordham College to assist with the arrest of Professional-Palestinian pupil protestors contained in the college Wednesday night Might 1, 2024 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Each day Information)
Cuomo mentioned he believes it’s necessary the SRG retains all of the capabilities it at present performs, together with protest response, however that it’s additionally key so as to add an extra 400 members — over a 4 yr interval — to extend protection in all 5 boroughs, particularly at massive transit hubs and industrial corridors.
Requested if he’s in any respect involved in regards to the excessive charges of abuse of pressure accusations in opposition to SRG members, Cuomo mentioned the NYPD wants to ensure to police their very own higher.
“If we know the line and we know when someone steps over the line, there are discipline actions, including dismissal, sanctions, etcetera,” he mentioned. “So you have to strictly enforce the line.”
Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announce the growth of the NYPD’s High quality of Life Groups at Brooklyn’s Whitman Homes on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (Ed Reed / Mayoral Pictures Workplace)
Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual {and professional} misconduct accusations, floated his proposal for a bigger SRG as a part of a broader public security plan that additionally included new particulars for the way he envisions having the ability to rent 5,000 new officers to get the NYPD’s whole uniformed headcount to about 40,000.
The primary proposal Cuomo floated is making new hires eligible for $15,000 sign-on bonuses that’d push their beginning salaries to about $75,000, making the wage degree aggressive with neighboring counties and different massive U.S. cities.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who centered his Democratic main marketing campaign on proposals to make town extra reasonably priced, has taken a unique method to public security, saying he wouldn’t search to increase the ranks of the NYPD.
As a substitute, he has mentioned he’d hold them flat and in addition launch a brand new civilian company, the Division of Neighborhood Security, that’d deal with psychological well being emergency response so as to let cops give attention to combating crime.
In a press convention in downtown Manhattan on Monday, Mamdani mentioned such a shift in focus would guarantee officers aren’t pressured to work time beyond regulation, which he argued is an enormous purpose cops are leaving the division at excessive charges, citing conversations he’s had with rank-and-file officers.
“The fact that every year we ask them to take on additional responsibilities, we are making it more and more difficult for them to respond to the very responsibilities that drew them to the job in the first place,” he mentioned.
Zohran Mamdani, left, speaks alongside District Council 37 Government Director Henry Garrido and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren Monday, Aug. 4, 2025 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
Although Mamdani now says he helps conserving the police headcount flat, he posted often years in the past about his help for defunding and dismantling the NYPD. In a single particularly explosive tweet, Mamdani wrote in 2020 that the NYPD is “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
“If he wins, he’s going to dismantle the department and its going to take us 15 years to correct the damage he’s going to do,” mentioned Vincent Vallelong, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Affiliation, which has endorsed Adams for reelection.
The Police Benevolent Affiliation, the NYPD’s largest union representing rank-and-file officers, was alone among the many division’s union heads in not knocking Mamdani.
“We just buried a hero police officer,” mentioned PBA President Patrick Hendry, whose union has but to endorse within the mayoral race. “We are focused on caring for his family, not on what any politician has to say.”
Adams, who’s additionally working on an unbiased line in November and has been largely supportive of accelerating NYPD funding in his first time period, contended Cuomo doesn’t know what he’s speaking about because it pertains to the SRG.
“One candidate is stating he doesn’t want SRG at demonstrations. That’s one candidate. Another candidate is picking an arbitrary number with no science behind it,” the mayor added.
Initially Printed: August 4, 2025 at 3:27 PM EDT
