Mamdani Prepares to Disband NYPD's Strategic Response Group, With Plan Expected as Soon as This Week

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to unveil a plan as soon as this week to disband the NYPD's Strategic Response Group (SRG), fulfilling a signature campaign pledge. A City Hall spokesperson confirmed to Politico that the administration will dissolve the roughly 600-officer specialised unit and separate protest response from counterterrorism. (Photo: New York City police officers, file photo.)

City Hall confirms: the unit will be disbanded, protest and counterterrorism split

According to three people with knowledge of the announcement, Mamdani could unveil the plan as early as this week; Bloomberg also confirmed the plan, citing City Hall sources. Spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement: “As the Mayor has said, our administration will disband the Strategic Response Group and separate protest response from counterterrorism.” She said the administration would have more to share soon, but did not say how the unit's personnel, equipment and responsibilities would be reassigned; the plan could be formalised through an executive order.

A roughly 600-officer unit, formed in 2015, covering counterterrorism and large protests

The Strategic Response Group was formed in 2015 by then-Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, consolidating eight separate borough task forces to handle large emergencies that regular patrol units are not equipped for, including riots, large protests, civil disorder and counterterrorism operations. When he announced his candidacy in December 2024, Mamdani pledged on social media to disband the unit, saying it had “cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights.”

The 2020 protest controversy and court settlement are the key backdrop

The unit drew widespread controversy during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, when it used “kettling” tactics to arrest large numbers of demonstrators; a 2023 court settlement limited the NYPD's use of the unit, and its officers have been found to have higher misconduct complaint rates than the department median. A federal judge later upheld the settlement and awarded the plaintiffs more than $500,000. Even if the unit is disbanded, the settlement's tiered restrictions will still apply, and any unit that takes over crowd control must comply with them. The CURB Act, sponsored by Council Member Chi Ossé, would bar the unit from responding to First Amendment events and from using kettling and tear gas.

Split with the police commissioner unresolved; where counterterrorism lands is an open question

The disbandment plan is a major point of tension between Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Tisch, appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams and kept on by Mamdani, supports retaining the unit and favours reform over disbandment; she has said the NYPD facilitated 4,255 protests in 2025 and the Strategic Response Group was available at 245 of them, about 6%. At a press conference in September, Mamdani said the unit was created a little more than a decade ago to deal with terrorist threats to the city, but had come to handle both counterterrorism and responses to the exercise of First Amendment rights, and the two must be separated; an anti-Netanyahu protest that month at which more than 100 people were arrested added to the pressure. In March, City Hall said it was working with the police department on how to disband the SRG in a way that keeps New Yorkers safe and protects First Amendment rights.

Since taking office, Mamdani has signed an executive order creating an Office of Community Safety, a scaled-down version of the Department of Community Safety he proposed on the campaign trail; sources say the protest-response role could fall under that office. But who takes over dedicated responses to terrorist attacks or mass-casualty events remains unresolved — sources told one outlet that scrapping the SRG entirely could leave the NYPD with no dedicated unit for terror attacks or mass-casualty events. When the formal announcement comes, attention will focus on how the protest role is allocated, where counterterrorism duties land, and whether Tisch publicly backs the design. (Sources: Politico; Bloomberg; New York City Hall statement.)