Mamdani backtracks on city vow to NYPD to hire 5,000 more cops

In a 2027 preliminary budget unveiled by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday, he revealed plans to cancel former Mayor Eric Adams’ vow to hire 5,000 more NYPD officers. 

The preliminary budget includes the discontinuation of "the phased hiring of 5,000 additional police officers." Per Gothamist, this would keep the NYPD’s force at just under 35,000 officers in the 2027 fiscal year. 

In the last months of his time in office, Adams unveiled plans to boost the NYPD’s staffing to 40,000, the highest level in 20 years. When asked about the plans in the fall, Mamdani said, "It’s not a question of headcount. It’s a question of safety." He added at the campaign stop, "Eric Adams cannot actually hire enough officers that he actually has the money to do so."

The 2027 budget keeps the NYPD’s budget at around $6.4 billion, while the budget plans direct $421 million towards things for the NYPD such as overtime shortfalls, aging police cars, and surveillance technology costs. It also sets aside $31 million for police costs related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Mamdani also detailed in his Tuesday unveiling "two paths" to bridge the gap in the budget. "The first is the most sustainable and the fairest path," Mamdani said. "This is the path of ending the drain on our city and raising taxes on the richest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations. The onus for resolving this crisis should not be placed on the backs of working and middle-class New Yorkers if we do not fix the structural imbalance and do not heed the calls of New Yorkers to raise taxes on the wealthy."

"This crisis will not disappear. It will simply return year after year, forcing harder and harsher choices each time. And if we do not go down the first path, the city will be forced down a second, more harmful path. Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only revenue lever fully within our own control. We would have to raise property taxes," he added.