$\"Mayor$ <\/p>\n

POLICING PROBLEMS: <\/b>In the early days of his administration, Mayor Zohran Mamdani placed a new requirement on the NYPD: The department would have to secure permission from his office to deploy its Strategic Response Group to make arrests at protests.<\/p>\n

The directive, which hasn\u2019t been previously reported, shows Mamdani sought to exert significant influence over a core function of the police department. Its existence also calls into question why the mayor hasn\u2019t more frequently used that authority to stop the SRG from being deployed at protests \u2014 since he promised as a candidate to disband the specialized unit.<\/p>\n

The unit \u2014 which has long weathered criticism for its heavy-handed protest responses \u2014 just last week arrested activists protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s appearance<\/a> at the United Nations General Assembly. Several politicians allied with Mamdani were among those<\/a> put in handcuffs.<\/p>\n

When asked about those arrests, an NYPD spokesperson revealed the pre-approval policy to Playbook, confirming that the mayor\u2019s office has the final say whenever the department wants to deploy SRG to detain protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe communicate with City Hall on this topic as we do on a host of things related to the department,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The police spokesperson declined to comment on when exactly the mayor first instituted the SRG pre-clearance process. But a person familiar with the timing, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, said the policy was put in place during the first few months of Mamdani\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

A Mamdani spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday on why the mayor didn\u2019t use his power to call back the SRG last week if he didn\u2019t think its deployment was justified. The spokesperson also would not say if the mayor has ever used his authority to reject a request from the NYPD for SRG intervention.<\/p>\n

Amanda Jack, The Legal Aid Society\u2019s policy director for criminal law reform, laced into the Mamdani administration after being informed of the existing policy.<\/p>\n

“It is deeply troubling that City Hall has the authority to stop SRG deployments, yet continues to approve them at demonstrations, including at the protests outside the United Nations last week where the mayor himself acknowledged that the deployment was an inappropriate use of police resources,\u201d said Jack, whose group has long advocated for abolishing the SRG. \u201cThis further confirms that regulating SRG deployments isn\u2019t the solution. City Hall must finally make good on Mayor Mamdani\u2019s campaign promise to disband SRG for good.”<\/p>\n

The future of the SRG is one of several sources of friction<\/a> between Mamdani and Jessica Tisch, his politically moderate NYPD commissioner. It\u2019s also an issue that the mayor risks disillusioning his leftist base with the longer he keeps dragging his feet on fulfilling his 2025 campaign pledge.<\/p>\n

Tisch has defended using the unit, saying it\u2019s a key tool in the department\u2019s network of crime-fighting strategies.<\/p>\n

But Mamdani \u2014 a democratic socialist who, before launching his 2025 mayoral bid, supported calls to defund the NYPD \u2014 has long said the unit should be dismantled. Since taking office, he\u2019s said he\u2019s in active conversations with Tisch about finding a way to break up the unit, but those talks haven\u2019t resulted in any tangible action nine months into his term.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2015, the SRG was initially just tasked with counterterrorism work. The group\u2019s responsibilities have since come to include responding to protests that turn chaotic or violent.<\/p>\n

In arguing for abolishing the unit, Mamdani and other police reform advocates have pointed to SRG officers racking up disproportionately high rates of misconduct claims while responding to protests.<\/p>\n