Mamdani reiterates campaign promise to disband the NYPD Strategic Response Group

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday reiterated his call to disband the controversial police unit known as the Strategic Response Group, standing by his campaign statements. The mayor doubled down on scrapping the SRG the day after they arrested dozens of anti-ICE protesters occupying a hotel lobby.

“We need to disband the SRG, and I'm currently in conversations with the police commissioner about the ways in which we can do so that are operational,” Mamdani told reporters at an unrelated press conference Wednesday afternoon. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch hasn’t publicly opposed the group or commented on Tuesday’s police deployment. A spokesperson for the police department did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Formed in 2015 by then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton as a way to consolidate eight separate borough task forces, the Strategic Response Group is intended to respond to larger emergencies and threats that normal patrol units are not equipped to handle. They specialize in counterterrorism, and they are frequently deployed to handle large protests. On Wednesday, the mayor said those First Amendment and counterterrorism responsibilities should be decoupled.

Controversy surrounding the group exploded during the Black Lives Matter protests that rocked the city in 2020, when the SRG used a practice of squeezing protesters into an enclosed area, called “kettling,” to control big crowds. In one incident, they descended on protesters in Mott Haven in the Bronx before the city-imposed curfew, arresting hundreds and injuring over 60. The Human Rights Watch said this conduct “amounts to serious violations of international human rights law.” In 2023, a settlement limited the NYPD’s use of the group. SRG officers have also been found to have higher misconduct complaint rates than the department median.

In a statement to Gothamist, a spokesperson for the mayor said he approved of the SRG’s conduct on Tuesday night. Kettling tactics were not used when the SRG reportedly arrested 66 people who had occupied the lobby of a Hilton Garden Inn in Tribeca. The protesters were objecting to the Hilton’s stated policy of housing federal immigration agents after the hotel company reportedly cut ties with a local hotel in Minneapolis that refused to service Department of Homeland Security agents.

“The mayor’s office has a variety of community engagement offices that have often built up relationships with organizations that might engage in protest activity, from labor unions to community groups,” said Alex Vitale, coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. “Those civilian offices could play a much larger role in monitoring and engaging with peaceful, nonviolent protest.” The NYPD itself has a Community Affairs Bureau with protest liaisons to establish rapport with First Amendment protest leaders, although it’s unclear whether those liaisons were deployed Tuesday.

The arrests come as anti-ICE protests expand nationwide. Mamdani said protests should continue. “I also commend New Yorkers who exercise their constitutional right to protest,” he said. “Especially in bringing attention to the horrific abuses of ICE across this country.” 

In at least one respect, the NYPD’s response to this week’s anti-ICE protests echoed its response to the George Floyd protests. In 2020, the NYPD infamously arrested then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter Chiara during a protest. On Tuesday night, the NYPD arrested de Blasio’s son Dante during the anti-ICE protest.

“Just got out of jail for protesting ICE’s violent, authoritarian actions across the country. ICE has no place in NYC #Abolish ICE,” Dante de Blasio wrote on X just before 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The former mayor later shared Dante’s post and added his own commentary: “Very proud of @DanteqdeBlasio for taking a stand against ICE. And this father agrees: #AbolishICE.”