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Since Zohran Mamdani’s decisive upset victory in the Democratic primary last month, a slew of unions have thrown their support behind his bid to become New York City mayor.
Among those backing the 33-year-old Queens Assembly member in November’s general election are labor heavyweights such as the Hotel Gaming and Trades Council and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union. District Council 37, the city’s largest and most powerful public-sector union, which listed Mamdani second in its ranked-choice endorsements ahead of the primary, is also championing the first-term assembly member.
One group of unions that will assuredly not endorse the democratic socialist are the city’s police unions. The heads of the NYPD unions insist that electing Mamdani as mayor — and essentially as the NYPD’s overseer — would lead to a massive exodus of officers and, as a likely consequence, increased crime just as the city is experiencing notable progress on that front.
The head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Vincent Vallelong, said a Mamdani administration would essentially amount to a replay of the Bill de Blasio years, during which both city and state lawmakers passed so-called criminal justice laws that alienated police and their unions, leading to, at best, mutual distrust and, occasionally, outright antagonism.
“He's not hiding anything,” Vallellong said of Mamdani. “He's telegraphing exactly what it is he is looking to do. And he is looking to put this city into the Stone Age is the way I see it.”
The SBA leader noted Mamdani’s call to “defund” the police as well as his other criticisms of the NYPD as reasons for his union’s opposition to a Mamdani mayoralty. Vallelong also criticized Mamdani’s campaign pledge to fund “community-based violence intervention programs,” which would include gun-violence interrupters.
While violence interrupters, typically members of a community with a knowledge of the street culture there, have had documented success in driving down crime, including lethal violence, Vallelong said they lack the organizational efficiency and efficacy of local police. “These people don't have the credibility to be put in these positions,” he said, adding that it’s cops who protect the interrupters.
Vallelong said the NYPD is contending with a low officer headcount “because of what it is [Mamdani’s] bought into. That does not work. This city does not move forward without the NYPD…. Every road leads to One Police Plaza. Because at the end of the day, the precincts are the ones that keep the community safe."
Scott Munro, the president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, expressed similar fears and misgivings about a possible Mamdani administration.
“He doesn't believe in law enforcement, so it's going to be very hard,” Munro said of the first -term Assembly member. A Mamdani administration would be “very scary,” he added.
Munro said the DEA had about 4,700 member detectives, which he said was an “all-time low” with their numbers still declining. But he was adamant the department would lose even more detectives should Mamdani win in November. “I'm very concerned. And what makes me more concerned is someone like this running for mayor that doesn't believe in law enforcement,” the union leader said.
The head of the Police Benevolent Association, Patrick Hendry, also insists that electing Mamdani would precipitate a severe exodus of officers from a department already reeling from departures.
“We are still in the grips of a staffing crisis almost a decade in the making. Nearly every leader now in 1 Police Plaza, City Hall and Albany agrees that this crisis is serious, and they have been willing to work with us to help retain and recruit more police officers,” Hendry said in a statement. “We can’t afford to have a mayor who ignores the problem or tries to take us backward. We need a mayor who will speak up for police officers and treat us and pay us like the professionals we are.”
'Dismantle it'
Mamdani has in fact suggested “defunding” the police. In response to a Twitter post from then-City Council Speaker Corey Johnson that is no longer available but which presumably referenced the NYPD’s budget, Mamdani in late June 2020 called the department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
“What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your deal with @NYCMayor uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts — defund the police,” Mamdani posted just days after the primary vote that would eventually catapult him to the Assembly.
To what extent Mamdani’s call to defund the police meant is not clear.
His campaign did not respond to an email seeking comment on the police unions’ perspectives regarding his platform.
A month after his win in the general election that same year, Mamdani authored a 10-post thread on X, formerly Twitter, in which he criticized aspects of police work. Prompted by a ProPublica story on how NYPD officers police the city’s sex trade, Mamdani called for the dissolution of the department’s vice squad, while also noting the department's high overtime budget.
“There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence,” he wrote.
But a section of Mamdani’s campaign website detailing the creation of a Department of Community Safety alludes to the NYPD’s essential functions but suggests the department is stretched thin by having to attend to responsibilities that lie outside its mandate.
“Police have a critical role to play. But right now, we’re relying on them to deal with our frayed social safety net — which prevents them from doing their actual jobs. It’s one of the reasons only 39 percent of crimes are solved and police response times are over 20 percent longer than they were in 2022,” it says.
The Department of Community Safety, the campaign website says, would “prioritize prevention-first, community-based solutions,” such as investments in mental health resources, a reduction in homelessness and an expansion of gun-violence prevention measures, among other efforts.
“The DCS will coordinate across city agencies, including with the NYPD, creating a whole-of-government approach to improve safety outcomes,” the website says.
According to the campaign, the DCS’s budget would be $1.1 billion, or less than 1 percent of the recently approved $116 billion Fiscal Year 2026 city budget. About $605 million of that would be funded through transfers of programs, with the balance representing new funding needs.
But Vallelong, the sergeants’ union president, said that money could be better spent — by hiring more police officers.
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