The communist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, presented a budget plan that calls for halting the expansion of the Police Department (NYPD) and cutting part of its funding, amid what he described as a "historic" fiscal crisis for the city.
Upon taking office, Mamdani annulled executive orders signed by his predecessor, Eric Adams, after Adams's indictment in September 2024. Among them was an ambitious plan to hire 5,000 new NYPD officers.
Adams's proposal envisioned adding 300 officers in July 2026, increasing the figure to 2,500 in 2027 and reaching 5,000 additional officers annually in 2028, which would have raised the deployment to about 40,000 officers on the streets.
The new plan keeps the number of personnel at around the current 35,000. In addition, the preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027 underscores the need to significantly reduce existing vacancies, which could translate into additional adjustments in the police department's funding.
According to local media, the proposal includes a 22 million dollar cut from a projected 6.4 billion dollar budget for the NYPD next year.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Mamdani stated that his administration inherited a 12 billion dollar deficit, which he has managed to reduce to 5.4 billion. However, he warned that the remaining gap is still considerable. "None of this is typical, and that is why our solutions will not be either," the mayor noted.
