NYPD officers say they’ll quit if Mamdani becomes mayor

Veteran law enforcement officials in New York City are raising serious concerns about Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, warning that his past rhetoric against the police and his current proposals could lead to a wave of officer resignations and a sharp decline in public safety.

The socialist candidate recently won the Democratic primary, putting him in a strong position against independent incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa in the upcoming general election. However, not everyone is supportive of a Mamdani-led New York City.

“The city would be totally unsafe for people who live here,” said Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association, in a statement to the New York Post. ​​“I go to bed and worry about the phone ringing. I’m worried about my members getting killed. I don’t want to plan any funerals.”

“If you put a guy like him in there, our people are going to get hurt, and nobody’s going to want the job. It’s going to put recruitment back five more steps,” Munro added.

According to the Post, high-ranking NYPD officials are preparing for a potential mass exodus of officers if Mamdani wins the mayoral race.

“I’ve had guys call me and say ‘If he wins, I’m quitting,’” one police source told the outlet. “It’s just weird that New York City would vote for him. I know he’s not here for the police.”

A veteran officer planning to retire soon after nearly two decades on the force voiced frustration with the city’s growing hostility toward police, saying that under Mamdani’s leadership, the situation would worsen.

"This guy thinks the entire NYPD is racist,” the officer said. “I think right now the department is more diverse than it ever was before. I don’t think this guy has even stepped foot in a precinct. He’s completely clueless to what the police department is today. He’s just going off a narrative that if you hate cops you’re going to get elected.”

Mamdani has a history of inflammatory remarks about law enforcement. In 2020, he tweeted: "We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD … NO to fake cuts – defund the police." He also declared that “queer liberation means defund the police.” More recently, amid his mayoral campaign, he has attempted to moderate his stance, stating that police “have a critical role to play.”

However, many of his current proposals continue to spark concern among law enforcement and public safety advocates. Mamdani has expressed support for a number of concerning policies, including creating a new Department of Community Safety independent of the NYPD, ending cooperation with ICE, decriminalizing drug possession, legalizing sex work, and establishing supervised injection sites. He does not support increasing police hiring, a policy endorsed by most other mayoral candidates.

“He has a weird notion of how policing is, as if it should be people like Mahatma Gandhi walking around, you know, functioning as a social worker. That does not work,” said Curtis Sliwa, GOP nominee and founder of the Guardian Angels.

One longtime NYPD detective also criticized Mamdani as a "hypocrite" for accepting a full-time police security detail during his campaign despite his anti-police platform.

“You have police protecting you, but you don’t want to protect the people of New York City?” the detective told the outlet.