Mamdani to endorse Ossé’s bill to curb controversial NYPD unit

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will announce on Monday his support for a City Council bill that would place severe limits on the New York City Police Department’s policing of protests, four sources familiar with the mayor’s plans told City & State. 

Sponsored by City Council Member Chi Ossé, the bill known as the CURB Act would prohibit the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group from responding to protests and ban NYPD officers from using kettling techniques, tear gas, pepper spray, bicycles and long-range acoustic devices while policing protests. It hasn’t yet had a hearing, and has faced quiet opposition from Council Speaker Julie Menin and members aligned with her.

In addition to throwing his support behind the CURB Act, Mamdani plans to announce that the SRG will be disbanded and replaced by a number of other units. The mayor’s proposal – details of which were first reported by Politico and The New York Times – calls for the creation of a civilian deescalation unit housed within the Office of Community Safety, which will work alongside the NYPD’s “First Amendment units” as the first line of response to protests. The proposal also calls for the creation of a new “Patrol Support” unit, which would inherit much of the SRG’s current protest-related responsibilities and capabilities, such as conducting mass arrests at demonstrations.

Two people briefed on the proposal told City & State that the creation of the Patrol Support unit was a condition of receiving support from NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The police department is now supportive of the plan, while police reform advocates who have long called for the elimination of the SRG are already privately raising concerns that the Patrol Support unit would just end up as a rebranded version of the SRG.

The SRG has garnered controversy since it was first established as a specialized counterterrorism and protest response unit within the NYPD in 2015. While supporters in the police department argue that the roughly 500-member force are beneficiaries of highly specialized training and best positioned to respond to violent demonstrations, advocates have long criticized it for using aggressive tactics against protesters. 

Calls to eliminate the unit predate the Mamdani administration. However he campaigned on a promise to disband the unit – winning praise from police reform advocates and his base within the Democratic Socialists of America – and has come under increasing pressure as he failed to do so for the first 11 months of his mayoralty. It’s unclear whether Mamdani’s upcoming announcement and backing of the CURB Act will quell those concerns. 

Ossé and the New York Civil Liberties Union, one of the loudest critics of the NYPD’s aggressive policing of protests, pushed for Mamdani to endorse the CURB Act in addition to announcing plans to disband the SRG – arguing that City Council legislation was necessary to ensure that a future mayor cannot reverse Mamdani’s policy change. Mamdani agreed, and he plans to release a video with Ossé next week announcing his support for the bill.

But there’s no guarantee that the CURB Act will pass, even with Mamdani’s support. Several sources told City & State that Menin remains opposed to the bill and Council Member Oswald Feliz, chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee, won’t allow it to advance for a hearing. 

Ossé has been lobbying hard for the bill for weeks, leading a social media pressure campaign against Feliz. In one short-form video released Oct. 9, Ossé alleged that Feliz is blocking the legislation from advancing, charging that “Democrats should not be standing in the way of the democratic process.” 

The CURB Act currently has 25 sponsors – one short of a majority in the legislative body – but one Democratic council member said Ossé’s “theatrics” have turned off some colleagues. Rather than reward Ossé by supporting the CURB Act, another member may end up stepping in to introduce an alternative version of the bill. “We could do other bills and other pieces and I guess we’ll first see what the mayor is going to do – but I don’t think a lot of people want to reward the corny tactics that the bill sponsor has engaged in,” the council member said.

An earlier version of this story was included in City & State’s exclusive Heard Around Town newsletter. Subscribe to Heard Around Town here.