Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds Security Briefing Ahead of Pride Parade With NYPD Commissioner Tisch

June 27, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning. Joined here with the police commissioner [and] deputy mayor of Public Safety, and we really want to give an overview of our safety apparatus for the Pride Parade that's going to take place on Sunday. Really excited about the parade and what it has to offer the city, and it's just part of my life work for my days in the state senate when I pushed through marriage on the floor of the senate. 

And even when we had a large number of senators who did not want to see that bill pass. In addition to that, this parade is more just a celebration of our LGBTQ+ community. It is a symbol of our acceptance. It's a symbol of how our diversity in this city will always be protected, and we would not allow any form of hate to get in the way of that celebration. 

This weekend is extremely significant. We know what is playing out in the Middle East, what's playing out in Iran. So out of an overabundance of caution, there are procedures that we are going to put in place to ensure that this is a safe celebration. The commissioner is going to go over exactly what the weekend will look like. 

With this administration and this Police Department, we have a history of ensuring large events are carried out in a very safe fashion. And we're going to ensure this is done at the same time. So I'm going to turn it over to the police commissioner of the City of New York to give us an overview. 

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Good morning, everyone. And thank you, Mayor Adams. On Sunday, more than a million people will take part in the largest Pride March in North America. This will be a day of joyful celebration, the culmination of our citywide Pride Month events. And as always, the men and women of the NYPD will be out there keeping everyone safe. 

At this time, there are no known specific credible threats to the Pride March or to any other Pride events this weekend. But the NYPD, along with our law enforcement partners, remain vigilant. Planning began the moment last year's march ended. And we have been working around the clock and in close partnership with the organizers, community groups, city officials, and others to secure every Pride Month event across New York City for the past four weeks. 

This year's Pride March is no exception. As far as logistics for Sunday, the 1.8 mile route will be secured with 10,000 metal barriers, as well as sanitation trucks, NYPD vehicles, and uniformed officers on foot posts, and will proceed as follows. 

The march will kick off at 11 AM on 5th Avenue and 25th Street, and then go south on 5th Avenue down to 8th Street. The march then turns west on 8th Street to Greenwich Avenue, north on Greenwich for one block to Christopher Street, then west on Christopher Street to 7th Avenue. Finally, marchers will proceed north on 7th Avenue up to 14th Street. 

Street closures will begin as early as 7 AM, and there will be no crosstown vehicle traffic along the full length of the route starting at 10 AM. And once the event gets underway, pedestrians will only be able to cross at the following locations. On 5th Avenue, there will be six crossings, at 23rd Street, 21st Street, 17th Street, 14th Street, 13th Street, and 10th Street. 

Along 6th Avenue, there will be four crossings at 14th Street, 10th Street, 8th Street, and Waverly Place. And on 7th Avenue, there will be five pedestrian crossings at 14th Street, 13th Street, 10th Street, Perry Street, and Grove Street. 

Street closures and detours will make it difficult to drive or to park in the area, so we strongly urge everyone to take public transportation to and from the event. To that end, 13 different MTA bus lines running through Midtown and Downtown Manhattan will be impacted. Please check the MTA's website for information on all service changes. 

Also, some stairways at 1, 2, and 3 train stations will either be closed or designated as exit or entrance only from 12 PM until midnight. And while City Bike will be operational, some docking stations in the affected area may be inaccessible. 

The expectation for Sunday is a safe celebration for marchers, spectators, business owners, and local residents alike. But that doesn't just happen on its own. It takes a smart, thorough, and well-executed plan, and you will see that this weekend. 

New Yorkers can expect an increased police presence throughout the area to include uniformed officers, posted along the route, traffic agents at intersections and crossings, as well as personnel from our emergency service unit, mounted unit, canine, harbor, counter-terrorism teams, and more. Our helicopters and our drones will be deployed during the march to assist our officers on the ground, providing comprehensive coverage in real time. 

We will also have a uniform presence in Washington Square Park during and after the event to assist with crowd control in that densely residential area. And of course, on top of all of this, there will be many other security measures in place that you will not see. 

But we will see over a million people celebrating pride, celebrating love, and showing the world [that] New York City will always be a place where every person can freely and openly be who they are everywhere all the time. 

It's also a place where we look out for one another. So remember, if you see anything suspicious or if something does not look right, tell a uniformed officer or call 911 right away. Finally, I want to thank all of our partner agencies who helped us design and implement this security plan. And I especially want to thank every member of the NYPD who will be out there working this weekend. 

You are the absolute best at what you do, and all New Yorkers know that you are the ones who make Sunday's march, and all the other events in our city, possible. And given that, it is deeply offensive that for the fifth year in a row, the NYPD's Gay Officers Action League is banned from fully participating in the New York City Pride March. 

It is the height of hypocrisy that uniformed officers from GOAL are fit to line the parade route and keep everyone safe, but they are unable to march in their own uniform and under their own banner. That is in direct opposition to the inclusivity that the LGBTQ+ community has fought so hard for. And it flies in the face of everything that GOAL has achieved over the past 43 years. 

I will be out there on Sunday, and I am not going to be shy about what agency I'm there to represent. I have been very clear with Heritage of Pride that this exclusion is unacceptable. And I will continue to be outspoken on this topic until Heritage of Pride rights this wrong. 

My hope is that the decision makers here will come to their senses, because this march is not about hiding who you are. It is about being visible. And I know that so many of our GOAL members are just as proud about being a cop as they are about being LGBTQ+. Those things are never in opposition. 

And our next speaker has spent his remarkable public service career living that exact message. As the president of GOAL, Detective Brian Downey has been a dynamic driving force for progress. His tenure has seen a dramatic increase in representation and the signing of historic legislation. But he'd be the first to tell you that the work is never done. 

He, along with each member of GOAL, fights on, and I will be right there with him. So I'd like to introduce my good old friend, Detective Brian Downey, and wish him and everyone else celebrating in New York City a safe and happy Pride. 

Detective Brian Downey, President, Gay Officers Action League New York: Good afternoon to you all. First, I would like to thank our mayor and police commissioner for inviting me or summoning me here today to join you all. The mayor who worked so hard with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement and the Guardians Association, making fair and impartial policing more prevalent in this city. 

And in that shared common goal with the Gay Officer Action League. And our police commissioner who has partnered with us through her entire tenure at the NYPD. And continuing on, no matter what agency she led, she is always on our backs. 

Once again, my name is Brian Downey. I am the president of the Gay Officers Action League. We represent LGBTQ law enforcement and criminal justice professionals across New York City, the tri-state area, and beyond. We serve in every borough, at every rank, in every role. From patrol, from the subways, from housing developments, from the front lines of the courtrooms in the city. 

This week, once again, GOAL was told we cannot march in the New York City Pride March in our uniforms. We were told our presence, our visibility, makes people uncomfortable. But let's be honest about what's actually happening here. 

Heritage of Pride has no issues with hundreds of straight officers standing armed along the route. They'll be in uniform, fully equipped, protecting the participants and the crowd. The ones being asked to stay out of sight are us, the gay, the trans, the queer, and our allied officers who have risked everything to serve both this city and this community. It is not about safety. It is about exclusion. 

We've heard the justifications. We've heard that it's about safe spaces and community trauma. And we respect and we acknowledge that that trauma is real. But this policy does not create safety. It creates friction and fiction, one where queer officers vanish while the same institution is asked to secure the march. 

They're asking us to protect pride, but telling some of us we cannot take part in it. And yet, we will protect it. Because safety is not optional. Duty is not conditional. Service doesn't stop because someone else is uncomfortable. That's the difference. We still show up, we still do the job, and we still stand with this city, every community, every borough, every time. 

Let's be clear, no one is asking for special treatment here. We are asking to be seen for who we are and what we've earned. We march to honor those who couldn't. We march for those who had to serve in silence. We march because being visible, especially in uniform, is still to this day an act of courage. 

And yes, we've heard the message being sent to us, that we don't belong. But this is our answer. We are not going anywhere. We are not stepping aside. We are not stepping back. And we're not stepping out of uniform just to make someone else comfortable. This isn't about one policy. It's about what kind of movement this is and who it chooses to leave behind. We believe that pride should make room for everyone, especially those who have stood at the intersection of identity and service, and that includes us. Thank you.

Question: So this ban started in 2021. They said it was going to be for four years. That was a time when there was, you know, a lot of anti-police sentiment out there. What have your conversations been like with the organizers? 

You've kind of talked about it, but as far as, like, what their feelings are and why you think this is still happening. And then for the mayor, would you ever consider boycotting this? You've been asked about that in the past. Have you thought about that differently? 

Detective Downey: I'm dealing with a little bit of laryngitis, so just bear with me. I'm going to try and – so the tone of the meetings has been overwhelmingly positive. I think that Heritage of Pride and the Gay Officers Action League are kind of lockstep with shared goals. We stand against police brutality. We stand for fair and impartial policing. 

I think it was a little over a year ago on Halloween, there was an incident with a police officer in Manhattan North who used a slur over a public address system. The Gay Officers Action League, more than any group in this city, were the most vocal in speaking out against that. We've worked to enact policies. 

We've worked to – just a few weeks ago, we met with Chief Chell's staff and we talked about sensitivity around nightlife in our community spaces this month. It's a little reminder that we do with law enforcement executives almost annually to ensure that communities are being protected, but they're being protected responsibly and sensitively. 

You know, we– this news came to us about two weeks ago and it's unfortunate. We will continue to engage. We will continue to do whatever it takes to participate again in uniform, but we're– we can't stay silent on it. We're not going to stay silent. We're not going to be erased. 

Police Commissioner Tisch: I was– to answer your question specifically, I was shocked because I believed, based on discussions that Brian and I have had with the people who run Heritage of Pride, that this year they were going to reverse their decision, and at the 11th hour, they let us know that our officers would not be included.

Mayor Adams: I truly support what GOAL is pushing for, and the organizers of the parade made this decision. The members of the LGBTQ+ community here in the city, they are not making that decision. So to boycott the parade is really ignoring the fact that a large number of members of this community would like their mayor to participate in it. 

But my voice is clear. GOAL, they have an action that they do each year down in the West 4th Street area, and I'm going to stand with them on that. And we saw this on Staten Island when the community was not allowed to march in the Staten Island Day Parade. 

We allowed them to have their own parade, and eventually, they gave in, and now they can march in this parade. You should not have to be afraid to express who you are, and I just don't understand the logic that because someone is a member of the community that protects the residents of this city, that you would deny them the right to do so. 

I mean, would we do that to a nurse, would we do that to a doctor, would we do that to other professions? And it's just really unfortunate with this, that leadership is taking this anti-law enforcement energy. It's unfortunate. But I stand with the gay officers, actually, just as I stood with them when I was a police officer. I continue to stand with them as the mayor. 

Question: Commissioner, you mentioned that they made that decision. Did they cite something that happened recently for the last minute change of heart? And then secondly, how does it get in the way of planning the logistics of this, planning for a safe parade if there's tensions that are between the two sides?

Police Commissioner Tisch: So I just want to be clear that this has absolutely no impact whatsoever on the job that the New York City Police Department will do securing the Pride March this year or ever. We are professionals. Our cops are professionals, and we are pulling out all the stops to make sure that we have a successful, safe parade. Your first question?

Question: You referenced an 11th hour decision. Did they cite something that happened recently?

Police Commissioner Tisch: No, they did not. Brian and I thought, had a very productive meeting with them a few months back, and then they let us know about two weeks ago that they were not going to be changing course. 

Question: Just a couple of questions. As far as the security plan goes, is there going to be any sort of changes or anything, any ramp-ups due to the DHS bulletins that have come out about cyber threats or attacks on government officials? 

The other question I had was about other demonstrations that might be happening that day, because that's what we've seen. Like for the tree-lighting ceremony, there were other counter-protesters. Is anything like that being planned or being, I guess, strategized for in case anybody starts wanting to create some sort of a formation or something somewhere else along the route?

Police Commissioner Tisch: We have been very clear that we are operating in a heightened threat environment, and we have been for some time now. For that reason, we're not doing things differently, but you're going to see more of it, more officers, more sanitation trucks, more drones. It's more of an augmentation of the plan rather than any major change to the plan. 

As you know, every day in New York City, there are lots of things going on, protests, events, what have you. And so the New York City Police Department is always prepared and will be prepared on Sunday to accommodate the Pride March, as well as any protests that occur or demonstrations.

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