Deputy Mayor Renita Francois, Department of Community Safety: All right, good morning, everybody. A wonderful day in Brooklyn. It's nice and sunny. It is a good day for good news, right? So, I am Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Renita Francois, and it's an honor to welcome you all here on this momentous occasion. Today is about delivering on a promise that every New Yorker deserves to be safe in their neighborhood, and that safety should be built through trust, prevention and support.
The expansion of our crisis management system and the creation of the Office of Community Safety were major commitments on this mayor's campaign. And today, we are turning that commitment into action, bringing more community-based violence prevention, street outreach, conflict mediation and access to support to Bushwick, Harlem, and Washington Heights and Inwood.
This work is rooted in the leadership of credible messengers and community organizations who know their neighbors best, and it reflects this mayor's belief that government works best when it partners with the people closest to the challenge.
Please join me this morning in welcoming the mayor of the city of New York, Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here at the Williamsburg Community Center alongside so many friends, partners and advocates, those who have long worked to build a city that is safer, that is healthier and that is fairer for all.
Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to honor our CMS partner, Antoine Utsey, who was tragically killed last month in Brownsville while leading the very work of keeping our neighborhoods and our community safe. Antoine's loss is heartbreaking for his family, for his loved ones, for all of his colleagues across the crisis management system and, frankly, for our entire city. May he rest in peace.
Now, I also want to acknowledge a number of leaders we have here, both inside and outside of our City government. We have, as we've just heard from, our deputy mayor for community safety, Renita Francois. We have our deputy mayor for health and human services, Dr. Helen Arteaga. We have our Office of Community Safety commissioner, Dr. Ayesha Delany-Brumsey. We have the one and only public advocate, Jumaane Williams. We have the Brooklyn Borough president, Antonio Reynoso. We have the City councilwoman of this district, Councilwoman Jennifer Gutiérrez. The assemblywoman of this district, Maritza Davila. We have the executive director of Southside United [HFDC-Los Sures and] The Wick [Against Violence], Juan Ramos. We have the founder of Grow Up, Grow Out Junior, Antonio Fernandez. And we have the director of programs at Living Redemption, the Rev. Alex Martinez.
We also want to thank our hosts here at Grand Street Settlement. We appreciate being here with all of you. And finally, I want to thank all of the CMS providers that are here today. We thank you for the work that you do every single day. It is work that keeps New Yorkers safe; it is work that keeps New Yorkers alive; it is work that keeps New Yorkers living and loving the city that they call home. Thank you so much.
Now, 40 years ago, a group of researchers and specialists, community leaders and those dedicated to keeping their neighborhoods safe began to notice something very peculiar. The scourge of gun violence did not follow a random pattern. If anything, it looked nearly identical to the spread of diseases and epidemics. It had clusters and spikes, incubation and latency periods, factors of exposure and susceptibility. One act of violence would trigger the next, just like an infection passing from one person to another person.
Put simply, it was an epidemic. It was an issue of public health. And like an epidemic, the best treatment was one rooted in prevention. One that would interrupt transmission and target violence at its source. One led by community members themselves. People like those here in this room; our dedicated CMS partners who have used this framework as they have built out our city's approach to community safety.
Many of you have endured the cycle of violence, whether it be the devastating impact of gun violence or the lasting damage of incarceration. While it would be easy to become overwhelmed by these devastating experiences, each of you has poured that pain into purpose. The purpose of mentoring young people and those who are struggling; the purpose of providing them the love and support they need; the purpose of helping so many of our fellow New Yorkers break free from that very kind of violence.
Since the crisis management system was officially launched in our city in 2013, we have seen firsthand how effective the work of violence interruption can truly be. It is estimated that community violence intervention programs have reduced gun violence by 21 percent across our city on average, with gun injuries plummeting by 50 percent in East New York and shooting victimizations dropping 63 percent in the South Bronx after the introduction of CMS services.
That translates to 1,567 fewer shootings citywide between 2012 and 2024. 1,567 New Yorkers with futures ahead of them who will celebrate another birthday and who fill our city with life every single day.
This is critical, lifesaving work, and we are committed to deepening and expanding our investments in the preventative approaches that all of you lead. That is why, just three months after taking office, we established the Office of Community Safety, led by New York City's first-ever deputy mayor for community safety, Renita Francois.
And it is why today I am so proud to announce that we are investing $4.8 million to expand our crisis management system across three additional catchment areas that encompass four neighborhoods: Bushwick, Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood, bringing our total number of CMS neighborhood catchments to 49 across this city.
Now, many of the electives that I'm sharing the stage with, we were recently together this past April, when 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore was shot and killed in Bushwick, when a life that had just barely begun was taken in an instant. The Wick Against Violence will work to ensure that such a painful tragedy never occurs in Bushwick again. And they will do so by implementing our CMS framework at scale.
In Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood, Living Redemption and Grow Up, Grow Out Junior will develop our crisis management infrastructure from the ground up. Each provider will receive $1.6 million to hire new mentors and staff and connect participants with essential services. And these funds will support our outreach workers and violence interrupters as they tackle the cause of violence at its root. On street corners and bus stops, on park benches and at bodega counters, mediating conflicts before they become deadly.
At the beginning of this summer, I sat down with a group of young men from across the five boroughs who had found meaning, support and a path forward thanks to our crisis management system. When I asked them what they wanted out of summer in our city, they told me they just wanted to be safe. They just wanted to have fun. They just wanted to spend time together. That is what every single New Yorker deserves.
Today marks a great step forward in our efforts to make that kind of a future a reality. It is a privilege to undertake this work alongside all of you, and I just want to take a moment to say thank you to our deputy mayor for leading this work in our administration because it is quite literally the work that saves New Yorkers' lives. Thank you so much.
Deputy Mayor Francois: Thank you, mayor. It is good to be here with neighbors and partners from across our city who share a simple conviction: every New Yorker deserves to be safe, not just in their home, but on their block, on their way to school and in the places where their community comes together.
Today, we are taking another step toward making that promise real, expanding the crisis management system in Bushwick, Harlem, and Washington Heights and Inwood. Putting more resources behind the people who help resolve conflicts, prevent violence and connect their neighbors to support.
This work is about more than responding when something goes wrong. It is about being present before a crisis, building relationships, recognizing when someone needs help and making sure they have somewhere to turn.
Lasting public safety is not something government can simply deliver to a neighborhood. It is built with the people that know that neighborhood best. The people who have earned trust, who recognize the early signs of conflict and who can help someone choose a different path before harm occurs.
That is what our crisis management system is all about. Its trained outreach workers and credible messengers help resolve disputes before someone gets hurt. They support people after violent incidents and work to prevent retaliation. And they connect residents to jobs, education, mental health care, legal assistance and other resources that can help them move forward.
CMS is not an enforcement program. Its work is rooted in trust, sustained through consistent outreach and focused on support.
The network already operates across 46 neighborhood service areas, reaching communities spanning 29 NYPD precincts. But community safety is about more than lines on a map; we look at where conflicts emerge, where services are missing and how trusted partners can help meet those needs.
These three communities were selected based on local data, information from community partners, gaps in services and the ability of organizations to build the teams needed to do this work.
This is not about labeling any neighborhood. It is about responding to need with resources, with respect and with partnership.
To our partners in Bushwick, Harlem, and Washington Heights and Inwood, thank you for your leadership and for sharing our belief that together, we have the power to make our city safer. Whether it's the Wick Against Violence helping de-escalate a dispute in Bushwick; Living Redemption creating a space where young people in Harlem can find belonging and support; or Grow Up, Grow Out Junior bringing new outreach services to Washington Heights and Inwood — your work is invaluable. Your communities thank you, and this administration thanks you.
So, thank you, Juan. Thank you, [Antonio]. Thank you, Alex, and your teams, for all of your work and everything that you've done thus far and that you will do going forward.
Across all three sites, the goal is practical: more trusted people available to help before a conflict becomes a crisis, and more support for residents working toward a safer future.
And we know that preventing violence must go hand in hand with healing. That is why the Mamdani administration is also expanding access to clinical services across the CMS network. For the people our partners serve, that means stronger connections to mental health care and support for trauma. While a trusted outreach worker can help someone take the first step toward getting help, we want to make sure that meaningful care is available when they do.
Today is not simply an announcement about funding. It is a commitment to the people doing this work and to the residents who deserve to benefit from it.
Before I close, I want to acknowledge my wonderful counterpart in this work, Commissioner Dr. Ayesha Delany-Brumsey, and our Office of Community Safety team, who has worked tirelessly — who has worked tirelessly to ensure that this expansion was possible. Thank you for supporting our neighborhood teams and helping turn our commitment to these values into action.
Together, we are building a safer New York, one grounded in prevention and healing, supported by the leadership of our neighborhoods. Thank you.
Now I'd like to bring up our public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who many of you know helped pioneer this movement through the Gun Violence Task Force during his time in the City Council and has remained a steadfast supporter of this work ever since. I'm going to turn it over to our champion, your champion, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams: Yeah, first of all, Knicks in five. Knicks in five. Today's the day. Peace and blessings, love and light to everybody. Thank you to the mayor, to the deputy mayor, Dr. Ayesha, borough president, all of the groups who are here, all of the folks who are there. This is really important work that's being done, and I'm glad it's getting the attention and more services that are needed. You absolutely need trust, you need structure, you need funding.
I do want to take us back to 2013, as the mayor pointed out, when we first got the money, when I helped shepherd the first money for this — during that time, we were dealing with an explosion of the abuse of stop, question and frisk. They actually stopped more young men than actually lived in the City of New York, which meant they were stopping them two or three times; and we didn't see any connection between the amount of people they stopped in the neighborhood and the shootings that were occurring.
And when we tried to shepherd in this program, they told us that Black and brown people would fall from the sky and destroy the entire community. And we said, “No, I don't think that's what's going to happen.” And actually, when we did do this program, we saw a precipitous drop in violence in those communities.
And so, the program worked, and the program continues to work, and I think it's been very effective in trying to lower the gun violence in our city.
Of course, data means nothing to a person who's been shot or their family. I always want to make sure I'm clear about that. But we want to look at the way it's going, and it's moving in the right direction.
Now, every community I'm in, when I'm talking about public safety violence, I ask three questions. I ask, “How many people think gun violence and crime is an issue we have to work on? Raise your hand.” And people raise their hand. “How many people believe that our law enforcement is at least a partner in trying to do that? Raise your hands.” And people raise their hand. “How many think law enforcement can do it alone?” Nobody raises their hand.
When I'm in a blue district, a red district, a wealthy district, poor district, Black, white, everybody answers that question the same, but it's that third question we seem to have the most trouble putting into action. And I just don't know why.
Everybody understands that our law enforcement cannot do this alone. Everybody understands we can't simply arrest the children of the people we arrested 20 years ago because it didn't work 20 years ago. And that's the work I believe this administration is pushing forward.
So, I'm just grateful to Mayor Mamdani. I'm grateful to Deputy Mayor Renita Francois, Dr. Ayesha and everyone, because we're trying to put this into place. We're asking New Yorkers to walk with us on this journey, because changing the way we've done public safety is not going to take one day, it's not going to take one week, it is not going to take a month — it's going to take time.
So, folks have to walk on this, because that third question is something everyone knows: Law enforcement cannot do it alone. So, we have to stand up a system that can do the work.
Think about how much money, how much time, everything that goes into the NYPD. And think about how much time, how much money goes into everything else. And so, this is a process to build that out so we have the same 24-hour systems that people can come in when violence is happening and prevent that violence from happening.
So, I am so proud that we're having this expansion because we know what works in community to keep people safe. When I ask folks to think of the communities they already deem safe today, they never mention the communities that send the most people to Rikers, that have the most law enforcement and police in them right now. Because they know that alone does not keep them safe. They mention the communities that have access to other things. And so, if we can provide access to those other things to those communities that send the most to Rikers, then we can have the safety. If we treat it like a public health issue, as mentioned, then we could have the safety that we know we need.
The Wick does that here in Bushwick. It's done in Harlem; it's done all over. I want to shout out K. Bain, a brother from another who was with me in the City Council, and we have ushered in CCD.
This is the work of keeping people safe. And too many folks out there act like the community doesn't care about people dying there. These are the community; they are crying out for what they need to keep their communities safe. Nobody wants the violence to stop more than the communities that have them.
I'm tired of turning on the news and seeing people who look like me dying and people who look like my mother mourning. This deeply affects us. That little girl who was shot and killed, that affects you before you had kids — now that I have kids, it's unimaginable.
So, I'm very, very thankful that we're expanding the CMS network. I'm very, very thankful that we are standing up an office to do the work that we know keeps people safe.
This is not an excuse for causing harm in the community. I just want to make that clear. There has to be accountability. You can't run up shooting people. But we are very, very good at punishment. We are not very good at prevention. Those two things are not the same when we try to use them interchangeably.
So, I just want to say thank you again to this administration for beginning to build this out in the way that we know that it needs to be built out. I want to continue to be a partner, not just to put more money, but to build on what we already have and build on the infrastructure that's there; so that we can be a model for the entire nation of how we keep people safe and not solely rely on law enforcement — who, by the way, don't want to be the only ones that have to do this work, because they know that they can't.
So, congratulations to everybody. Let's keep moving forward. Let's keep New Yorkers safe. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Francois: Thank you. Now I'd like to bring up a son of Los Sures, Williamsburg, and a longtime advocate for ending gun violence: the Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso: Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Public Advocate, and all of our friends standing behind us. I am Antonio Reynoso. I am representing your favorite mayor's favorite borough, Brooklyn.
There's too many people holding [back]. You guys gotta clap more. This is a celebration today. Not for the joke, but it's a celebration today, so I want to just clap it up for what's happening today. Can we recognize that? You guys are — you're uptight, man. What's going on?
I want to say just a couple of things. Part of the reason why I got involved in wanting to be an elected official was because I wanted to start off working on police reform when I got to the City Council. I was a kid that was stopped and frisked many times — every single time, unjustly. And it was because of what I looked like and where I lived.
So, when I got to the City Council, I got an opportunity to write and pass laws that were going to affect meaningful change in police reform. One of those pieces of legislation, the Right to Know Act, was originally authored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and he passed it on to me and let me carry that torch. And we were able to do amazing things in building for police reform because we understood that to get this done, we need all hands on deck, and we need to be smart about how we address these issues. But what we won't do is allow for racial profiling to be the primary means by which we do safety in the city.
It was controversial, but we got it passed. And what we're seeing today is the fruits of the labor of folks like Jumaane Williams, who started this action.
And I want to talk about what that is. We are right now in the midst of the safest era in our city's history. I want to talk statistics. In Brooklyn, the neighborhoods that saw the largest reduction in crime: Crown Heights, Brownsville and East New York.
And the press will spend a lot of time standing up here with the commissioner of the Police Department and talking about how great a job that she is doing. And we won't take that away from her. But Crown Heights, Brownsville and East New York have something more than just police officers. They all have CMS units in them, every single one.
So, is it by chance that the three neighborhoods where we saw the largest drop in crime happen to be places that have CMS? It is not a coincidence. The statistics show very clearly that everywhere we have CMS workers, I guarantee, I'm a Brooklyn guy, but I guarantee anywhere in New York City where there is CMS, you will see a larger drop in crime.
If you care about lowering crime, you would look to the models that have the largest drops in crime. So, what do you do? We don't spend time trying to convince Mayor Mamdani that CMS is the work we need to do. I don't need to call him. He called me today and said, "You need to come because we're gonna be expanding CMS out here in Bushwick Houses." I said, “Absolutely, I will be there.”
Other mayors we had to talk to, convince [and] give more data to. People that look like us. Not anymore. I'm getting invited to support issues that we've been fighting for for 15 years, and I'm grateful for it.
So, I just want mostly — not us, because in this room — there's two types of people in this room. There are the people that do the work already, CMS and partners, and then there's press, the media. I need the media to know that that data is important, that this community safety agency that we have been talking about, our deputy mayor and our commissioner, has value in ensuring that we continue to be the safest big city in all of America. And it doesn't happen just with cops. It happens with these types of efforts.
So, thank you. So, I just want to say thank you, thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is so deeply wanted. We've been fighting for this, I think, for like five, six years. I was a council member when we started fighting [for] this, then Jen had to take on the work. But I'm glad that we're now fighting for things that are practical, that are keeping us safe and that make all the sense in the world.
So, congratulations to you. Don't forget to spread love. It's the Brooklyn way. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Francois: Another champion, stage full of champions. All right, next I'd like to bring up Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, who has also been a champion for safer communities and a strong partner in advancing community-based solutions to gun violence.
Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez: Hi, everyone. I want to, of course, first start off by thanking Mayor Mamdani, the entire administration, Deputy Mayor Francois and the commissioner, because I think this is such an important, important conversation that we're having.
And I don't think that we should be surprised that they're being led by two women. So, I just want to clap it up because most of our problems, I think, will be solved by women in a position to make those changes.
And it's not just at the top; it's the women here. I want to acknowledge our wonderful TA presidents, Ms. Lahoma Shipman from Bushwick Houses, Ms. Debra Benders from Cooper Park, Jessica Arocho from Woodhull. These are women who walked these streets, born and raised, raised their children here, were with us when baby Kaori was shot and killed that afternoon on April 1, and continue to work with those families.
And I was shaken to the core as a mom. As a council member, absolutely. But as a mom, I said this family was walking their baby in a stroller.
And very quickly, I want to acknowledge that the Wick has been doing amazing work for over a decade. We have seen some tremendous progress at Bushwick Houses, but this one incident really took people back and really traumatized our communities.
And so, I want to just also thank the mayor for having conversations with the young people about what they wanted this summer, which is a safe summer. Because whether young or old, we all want to go back home to our families. And nobody deserves to be raised in an area that is treated like a public health epidemic, where — like the framing of it — where this is a disease. And when you invest in illnesses and you see the cures, we could be that as well. We could benefit from an investment to this public health crisis, which is our public safety issue.
So, I want to thank all the amazing partners that have done tremendous, tremendous work. All the young people who take these jobs with the Wick or the other CMS providers. Really, you are the only people that can do this work. You cannot hire people that don't have credibility, that don't have the relationships.
So, I'm going to thank you all for putting your lives on the line every day to improve your community. It says a lot. And I'm just mostly grateful that we can celebrate today.
And to the families of those who have lost loved ones, I believe that you will see this progress. We ask you to continue walking with us arm in arm so that we can truly build a safer city.
Thank you once again to Mayor Mamdani and the awesome team, and shout-out to Historic Williamsburg Houses. Welcome, everybody. Take care.
Deputy Mayor Francois: Thank you, council member. If you work for a CMS organization, can you stand up, please?
All right. Can we give these folks a round of applause for all that they do. Thank you all for your work. Thank you for showing up in support of the partners here onstage. Thank you.
Now we're going to bring up our assembly member for this district, Maritza Davila, who has been a longtime advocate and voice for this community.
Assembly Member Maritza Davila: Yeah, they call me the OG. There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that because in the early '70s, when we suffered a major blackout in Bushwick and Williamsburg, we were left with rubble. We were left with nothing, OK? And there was a couple that some may be here in the room today that said, "Ouch," to make our community better, to open doors for young folks to come in and teach us how it's done, right?
But I have to tell you that it is refreshing to see that resources are being poured into communities like ours now, right? Before, you know, we used to set out in the street and be like, “You go to your mother.” Everybody raised your kids. Everyone. Right? That's how we did things. However, it's a different time.
I want to thank you, Mayor Mamdani, for making that investment in our communities and expanding what it is that we need right now. And what we need are men and women that do understand communities like ours, that can set out in the street and say, "Come here, young man. What is the problem? Do you have food in your house? Do you have food? Is your mother OK?"
That's what we need. We need people to be out there to be empathetic. Empathy is a big word in our community, and I stand here with all my fellow elected officials, and Juan is amazing. SOS, I know about you. I thank you because you are out there putting your lives at risk. Nobody talks about that. It is dangerous, but we're here today. This is a beautiful day for us today, for all of us to embrace and say, you know what, we're safer today because of these young men that are going out there and doing the work [that] we were 25 years ago.
So, thank you once again. I appreciate the work that, you know, he used to sit in front of me in Albany. Always a bright young man. But I just want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for making the push. Thank you, Borough President. Thank you, Council Member. And to all that really embraced this type of effort to bring our kids to where they need to be.
Because no child is born saying, "I want to be a gang member." There is no child out there that's born like that, unless they're born into the environment.
So once again, thank you so much for this wonderful day. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Francois: OK, last but certainly not least, I'd like to bring up Juan Ramos, my longtime comrade, a dedicated community leader who approaches this work with passion, care and purpose, and whose commitment to the people of this community is felt in everything he does, and I can attest to that.
Juan Ramos: Good morning, everyone. I want to begin by thanking all our partners who are here with us today, our resident leaders, our elected officials. And I want to stop there for a second because we hear about the Wick Against Violence in this community, and I can tell you that the Wick Against Violence work started because these elected officials got tired of hearing me. I was always bothering them about the violence in our community, but they never, ever turned their backs on me. They made sure they stood by me. They made sure that, without any resources, they collectively gave us whatever they can to make sure that we were on those streets, making sure that people were safe.
So, I want to thank them. I also want to thank the Office of Community Safety and the OICD for the support they give us, and all community-based organizations and individuals who continue to show up for our communities every single day.
And in particular, I also wanted to thank our NYCHA leaders here: Ms. Benders, Ms. Shipman. Ms. Shipman, in particular, was the one who was the catalyst for our work here in Bushwick. When she and I marched because she lost a young man in her development, from there we talked to each other and we said, "What else can we do in this community?" And I asked her, "Well, if we can become partners in doing this together, because we cannot do it alone, then we'll make a push and get it done."
And she's been my partner from day one. She's always been there, and she's always made sure that wherever there is a conversation about ending violence, she shows her presence. So, I want to thank her.
I also want to thank Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Renita Francois and our Mayor Mamdani for their leadership and their willingness to invest in strategies that are often overlooked when we talk about public safety.
This investment represents an important opportunity to recognize a fundamental truth. Public safety is not about how we respond to violence. It is also about what we do to prevent violence from happening in the first place.
We have seen historic lows in violent incidents in our communities this year. Too often, when we discuss milestones like these, the conversation focuses almost exclusively on policing. While enforcement is a frequent part of the conversation, we must also be willing to examine the work happening in neighborhoods long before a situation becomes a police response.
We must ask ourselves: Who's building relationships with our young people before they become involved in violence? Who's stepping in to de-escalate conflicts before they turn deadly? Who's walking our streets, connecting with residents, supporting families and creating opportunities for people who may feel their communities have forgotten them?
These are the community members, credible messengers, outreach workers and violence interrupters who do this work every day. They often do it without a badge, without a weapon or without the protective equipment that is almost always associated with public safety.
Instead, they rely on relationships, trust, lived experiences and deep commitment to the communities they serve.
The work may not always make the headlines, but it is important and cannot be overlooked. Because sometimes the most important act of public safety is the violence that never happens, the conflict that never escalates and the life that gets another chance.
Today, our city is making an investment not only in community-driven strategies that have demonstrated the potential to reduce violence, but also in people who carry those strategies. Day-to-day work is a message that the individuals doing this difficult day-to-day work of violence prevention, that violence prevention matters. And that their work deserves the resources, recognition and support necessary to continue making a difference.
It says that public safety must be more than a response to harm. There must also be a commitment to prevention, opportunity to heal and community partnerships.
Today, our city is choosing to expand the conversation about what public safety can look like. It is recognizing that we cannot rely on enforcement alone to address the complex conditions that contribute to violence.
We must also invest in the people who live with lived experience, the credible messengers, the community stakeholders, the community-based organizations that understand the challenges facing our neighborhoods because they live them, they work through them and they remain committed to addressing them.
This is what it means to allow communities to help shape their own safety. It means recognizing that people closest to the challenges are often closest to the solution. It means listening to residents, empowering community leaders, ensuring that the voices of those most directly affected by violence are not simply included in the conversation, but are part of shaping the decisions, strategies and investments that affect their lives.
Today's investment is a step forward toward making that vision a reality. It is a step toward ensuring the communities are not simply the recipients of public safety strategies, but active partners in designing and implementing them. And it is a step forward, challenging decades of disinvestment in the very people and neighborhoods most affected by the violence.
But while we should recognize the significance of this moment, we must also be honest about the work that remains. An investment today does not erase decades of policies, practices and approaches that have too often left our communities feeling unheard, underserved and disconnected from decisions about their own safety.
Building trust takes time. Healing takes time. Rebuilding relationships takes time, and consistency, accountability and willingness to listen, even when those conversations are difficult.
We must continue to ask ourselves whether the strategies reflect the needs of the people they are intended to serve. We must ensure the community organizations have the resources to sustain that work, that credible messengers have the support they need to remain effective and that residents have meaningful opportunities to influence what safety looks like in their neighborhoods.
Because public safety should matter to all of us. But for public safety to truly serve all of us, people must feel that strategies designed to protect them begin with them in mind.
They must feel heard. They must be valued. They must view that their lives, their experiences and their hopes for a safer community matter.
Most importantly, they must be able to see a future for themselves and their children in which safety is simply to eradicate violence. It must feel like an opportunity. It must be like stability, dignity and hope. That is the future we should all be working toward. Thank you.
Question: Hey, Mr. Mayor, how are you?
Mayor Mamdani: I’m good, excited for the game tonight.
Question: Where are you going to watch it?
Mayor Mamdani: Probably on my phone in transit.
Question: I had a question for you. I think I read, and correct me if I'm wrong on this, I believe that this contract is going through DYCD, and I think historically a lot of the CMS contracts have gone through MOCJ. It seems like, and maybe this is just because the office is new, but there seems to be kind of a practical remove for the Community Safety Department. It seems to have less kind of literal authority over these contracts.
I'm wondering, could you tell me what's the strategy behind the bifurcation? Like, how does this work if the contract's held by another agency? What is the community safety office's role? And is there any plan to change that going forward?
Mayor Mamdani: Absolutely. So, for a long time in City government, this work has not been coherent in any one place, and one of the first orders of business for our Office of Community Safety is to start to bring these different portfolios under one roof. So that work has already begun. We've seen a number of different offices that are now underneath the Office of Community Safety. The Office of Community Safety, for example, has 120 staff members within it across all of those offices.
That work is also going to continue, because I think what we are looking to do is to not only make it clear to the public the prioritization of community safety, but also to start to make sense of it in the way that the internal aspects of City government are organized. I don't know, DM, if there's anything you'd want to add.
Deputy Mayor Francois: I think you covered it. For the most part, these contracts exist at DYCD. In the past, they were at MOCJ. We're doing exactly what the mayor said, which is doing all of the boring technical things that have to happen to ensure that the contracts are in one place, consolidated under OCS, and that will happen soon.
Question: Do you feel eventually OCS is going to be the contracting agency? Is that the goal is to have all this centralized?
Mayor Mamdani: The goal is to ensure that the work of community safety lives within one roof, and that is work that is critically important because what we've also seen is we have advances in certain approaches happening in parts of our city and not enough of the centralization to even be aware of that, let alone to expand that same approach elsewhere.
I mean, I'm standing right here looking at Guns Down, Life Up, Lincoln Hospital, right? And I remember when I visited Lincoln Hospital — I think this was in the campaign — there was a young man who came and spoke to me about how he joined Guns Down, Life Up. And he told me that he was the victim of a crime and he was in the hospital. And someone visited him there at the hospital, at which moment he told me his only focus was to retaliate against the person he thought was responsible and how the intervention of an organization like this took him from retaliation to a world where he was actually being provided the kind of supports and services that addressed needs that had been longstanding in his life. A lack of stable housing, a lack of employment.
You know, I remember for years, wherever I would see Jumaane, no matter what the rally was, Jumaane would say the most effective way to prevent crime is for someone to have a job. And I think that that kind of holistic approach has for too long only been employed in bits and parts, in segments of our city. We want to bring all of this under one roof and expand it.
Question: I wanted to ask, some of the crime reductions that are being attributed to the CMS today, you know, the role of CMS has not been acknowledged in some of the other forums where we've talked about this, right? When I saw you presenting the crime stats with the commissioner a couple of weeks ago, I don't think they came up. And the commissioner is not here today. The commissioner has also said that she doesn't see herself or her department as having a role in reducing the population of Rikers.
So, I'm just wondering, as you build this out, you're putting several million dollars into this effort right now. The NYPD budget is $6 billion-some. Do you see — is your whole administration on board with this perspective of the importance of a community role in violence reduction, or does it need to be, you know, can you sort of ride on top of different approaches to the same problem?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I'll go through a number of things. The first is, with love and respect, I will correct you on the remarks that I gave a few weeks ago. In those remarks, I also spoke about the importance of CMS providers. I spoke about the role that they play in delivering public safety.
And to your larger question, this is a priority of mine as the mayor of our city. It's a priority for ours as the administration serving the city. And it is a priority that is reflected across City government, and it is one that we are so passionate about because it is not hyperbole to say that the consequences of this are life and death.
And I'm frankly tired of seeing so many of the same elected officials that I am with today at shooting responses, at vigils. I'm tired because how many more people will we have to mourn before we start to tackle the systemic nature of this?
And so, what today is, it is a step. It is one step. This is not the end of this partnership or this commitment. Rather, it is an indication of where we're headed.
And also, to your point about Rikers, we have to reduce the population of Rikers because we have to close Rikers. And we also know that the borough-based jails that allow us to close Rikers have a lower capacity than Rikers Island. And so that is a critical part of ensuring that we can be the administration that fulfills not only the legal imperative, but also the moral imperative of closing Rikers Island. And it's something that I'm incredibly committed to, and I want to thank the elected officials here who have been leading on this issue for longer than I've been in office, whether as the mayor or even as an assembly member.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: On the Office of Community Safety, I was wondering if you could update the broader agenda of the office. Does it still include some of the key campaign promises, like building out an army of social workers, greeters on the subway system? And is the plan, as you've become mayor and seen a little bit more about what the Police Department can and cannot do, will it all still be paid for by reducing police overtime?
Mayor Mamdani: So, when it comes to the larger office's focus, you know, today, working with CMS providers, providing support to CMS providers, that's a critical part. I'm also glad that we have Dr. Ayesha Brumsey, who's here with us, who is the commissioner of the Office of Community Safety.
One of her focuses has also been on B-HEARD. This is something that we spoke about a lot during the campaign, the importance of ensuring that we are strengthening B-HEARD, expanding its capacity, ensuring that they are at a level where every call that is eligible can be met with a response. That continues to be our goal.
And just to lay that out, it comes back to something that the public advocate said earlier, which is that we have asked our police officers to respond to every failure of the social safety net across our city. They are responding to, on average, 200,000 mental health calls a year. And what we have seen with approaches like B-HEARD in the past, is administrations have provided them with such limited support that oftentimes they're unable to do anything but fall short of what the expectations were.
We are looking to provide the financial support, the political support, as well as the procedural support internally so that it can be a fully functioning part of our city's response to mental health emergencies. Commissioner, is there anything you'd want to add?
Question: [Inaudible] ... still paid for by reducing police overtime, or is that looking less likely?
Mayor Mamdani: I think it's a combination of funding streams. We've talked about right now the Office of Community Safety is funded at north of a quarter-billion dollars. That is something that we intend to grow over our time in office, and we will do so in a manner that is always focusing on what can keep people safe.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: You mentioned the death of a man in Brownsville who worked as a CMS partner. I'm wondering, do you have any concerns about hiring up for these, I believe, 40-something positions, given that news? And then I have an off-topic as well.
Mayor Mamdani: I think it only underlines the incredible work that CMS providers do every single day, sometimes at the cost of their own safety. You know, I spoke to Antoine’s family and the heartbreak that they are dealing with, speaking about a man who put his life on the line to try and de-escalate a situation and lost his life as a result.
Again, I'm going to keep quoting the public advocate here. When we talk about the word community, the community is present not only in living in this neighborhood, but also in the response to these kinds of incidents. When we're talking about CMS, so often it is the very same community that is present there, the personal relationships that are critical.
So, I have full confidence in our ability to hire up for these positions. I also have an immense amount of gratitude, because what we are talking about is not only lifesaving work, but work that can be dangerous. And yet what we've seen is New Yorkers step up time and again, and they do so to save the lives of those that they love and those whose names they might never even know.
Question: I know earlier this month you attended a fundraiser for Abdul El-Sayed. I'm just wondering, how important do you see a victory for him as to your own political project in New York, and do you plan on showing any kind of public support for other Democratic or progressive candidates for the midterms?
Mayor Mamdani: Our movement here in New York City is a movement that is part of something national, which is a fight for working people. When you think about Dr. El-Sayed's campaign, I often go back to the way that he describes it: "Money out of politics! Money in your pocket! Medicare for All!" Those are concerns that ring true for Michiganders. There are also concerns that ring true for New Yorkers, and I think that his victory and the victory of Democrats across this country is of critical importance to our city because what it also indicates is a willingness to chart a new course in Washington that has working people at the heart of it. And so, we're hopeful, and yet we also know that hope doesn't win elections, the action that it motivates does and we look forward to that.
Question: [Inaudible] join AOC on any of these stops for a candidate?
Mayor Mamdani: As of now, my focus has been here in New York City, five boroughs, Knicks in five, all things five.
Question: I had a question about the Delivery Workers Protection Act. A group of — a coalition of economic groups, wrote to the speaker of the City Council today encouraging her to, you know, not push the legislation forward, saying that it could affect, you know, a lot of small businesses disproportionately, especially because of the rules around independent contracting and things like that.
They made the point that, obviously, larger corporations are able to deal with, you know, policy change and absorbing things like this easier than smaller companies. So, I'm just curious, like, from your perspective, what do you think this might, like — do you acknowledge that, you know, this could disproportionately affect smaller companies that do rely on those last-mile delivery workers versus the larger corporations?
Mayor Mamdani: And this is legislation that would not only make our streets safer but would also protect the workers who create so much of the profits that a company like Amazon reports, not only across the city or across the country, but across the world.
And I had a high school friend of mine reach out and ask me, "What do we think about the Delivery Workers Protection Act?" And I said, "How are you hearing about this?" “Because every time I go to a streaming service, this is the pre-roll ad that plays.”
And so, there's an incredible amount of money being spent by Amazon and other similar companies and entities looking to fear-monger about what this legislation would do. I continue to be incredibly supportive of this legislation, and I think that it is important in providing workers with the protections that otherwise they do not have today.
Question: Do you think it will not lead to job loss?
Mayor Mamdani: I think that this is something that will lead to better protections for workers.
Question: I wanted to ask you about the ballot questions. There's the five ballot questions, broadly speaking, having to do with streamlining processes and permitting, and also the one about increasing the rainy-day fund. I know the City government is somewhat limited in whether it can advocate for or against questions, but what can you say to voters about the ballot questions? These came from the COGE initiative. Do you think that they should be supportive of these?
Mayor Mamdani: As you said, I am legally limited in expressing any words of support or critique of the measures themselves, but what I can say is that what New Yorkers will have the chance to vote on is making government — it's to vote making government faster.
And across these five ballot initiatives, you have initiatives that would take, for example, a current state of play where, to build more housing, you have to go to 40 agencies and cohere that into one place to speed up the process of building housing.
You have an initiative that speaks to cutting down the time that a small business has to wait for setting up outdoor dining and saving that small business up to $1,800. That is critically important because we all know a small business somewhere in our neighborhood that in the spring says, "I would love to set up for the summer," and they get the approval in the winter. That time is gone, and they've had to pay an inordinate amount of money.
This is also something that's critical in speeding up street safety projects, as well as bringing government as a whole to a level of efficiency that is required to be able to deliver excellence on a larger scale. Thank you very much.