Mayor's Office of Community Safety

New York City will be a safer city where every New Yorker, in every neighborhood, can live free from violence and have the opportunity to shape their own future.

We will build that future in partnership with communities by leading with care, dignity, respect, connection, and opportunity. We will focus City resources where they are needed most by:

• Investing in community-led solutions
• Creating safer, more welcoming public spaces
• Connecting New Yorkers to the right support in moments of crisis
• Ensuring help is available before, during, and after harm

Together, we are working toward a city where every New Yorker can heal, grow, and thrive.

The Office of Community Safety works with communities across New York City to build safer neighborhoods and expand opportunities for New Yorkers. The Office helps prevent violence before it happens, respond when people are harmed, and provide the care and support individuals, families, and communities need to heal and move forward.

By focusing resources on the places and people most affected by violence, we strengthen the community supports that make long-term safety possible. This includes violence prevention and intervention, outreach, youth services, mental health care, services for victims and survivors, and other community-based efforts that promote safety, stability, and well-being.

Community safety is about more than responding after harm occurs. It also means investing in the conditions that help people, families, and neighborhoods thrive: trusted community relationships, meaningful opportunities for young people, accessible mental health care, support for victims and survivors, and services that help people meet immediate needs and build stability. Across this work, OCS prioritizes equity and accessibility, with a focus on ensuring that New Yorkers and communities most impacted by violence and harm have access to the resources, supports, and opportunities that promote safety and well-being.

OCS works to:

Prevent violence and harm through education, early intervention, community-based prevention, and evidence-informed strategies that address the conditions that increase vulnerability to violence.

Respond to crisis and heightened risk with timely, appropriate interventions that reduce harm, de-escalate conflict, stabilize individuals and communities, and connect New Yorkers to care and support.

Support healing and recovery by connecting victims, survivors, families, and communities to accessible, survivor-centered services and resources.

Build stronger community safety systems by investing in community-based solutions and the community safety workforce; coordinating agencies, providers, and resources; and using data, research, policy, and lived expertise to improve how the City prevents and responds to harm.

Ayesha Delany-Brumsey, Ph.D. is the Commissioner of New York City’s Office of Community Safety. A clinical psychologist by training, she has spent her career advancing evidence-informed approaches to behavioral health, criminal justice reform, and community safety. Prior to becoming Commissioner, she held senior leadership roles at NYC Health + Hospitals, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the Council of State Governments Justice Center, Fountain House, and the Vera Institute of Justice.  

Dr. Delany- Brumsey holds a BA from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Renita Francois, MBA, is New York City’s first Deputy Mayor for Community Safety. Appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, she leads the City’s coordinated approach to public safety, advancing prevention-focused strategies across gun violence, mental health and crisis response, victim services, hate-crime prevention, and gender-based violence.

A native of South Central Los Angeles, Francois previously served as Executive Director of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety, where she helped steward more than $500 million in community-centered safety investments and supported the development of NeighborhoodStat. Most recently, she was Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Program Officer at Tides Advocacy.

Francois holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BA in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.