Bill to create a Department of Community Safety gets its first hearing after nine months

On Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced $4.8 million to expand the city's Crisis Management System, the network of community violence-prevention groups, into Bushwick, Harlem and Washington Heights/Inwood. That brings the program to 49 neighborhood catchment areas, according to the City Hall transcript. Mamdani said the goal is for the city's community safety work to live "within one roof."

That roof is the Office of Community Safety. It is a City Hall office created by executive order in March, not a stand-alone department, and Gothamist reported at the time that a future mayor could undo it. Mamdani has said he remains committed to a full Department of Community Safety. On Tuesday he said the office has about 120 staff and more than $250 million in funding, per the transcript.

Next Friday, the Council takes up its own version.

What our records add

The bill. Int. 403 would create a Department of Community Safety in city law. Its prime sponsor is Lincoln Restler, and it was introduced in conjunction with the Brooklyn borough president on Jan. 29. Our record lists 34 Council members as sponsors, plus Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. Thirty-four is the number of votes needed to override a mayoral veto in the 51-member Council.

The wait. The bill was referred to the Committee on Public Safety on its first day and had no hearing until now. When the joint hearing opens on Friday, Oct. 30, at 1 p.m. (Public Safety, Governmental Operations), it will have waited 274 days.

Who will hear it. The Public Safety Committee is chaired by Oswald J. Feliz, who is not a sponsor. Six of its other eight members are: Justin E. Sanchez, Ty Hankerson, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Sandy Nurse, Chris Banks and Kamillah Hanks. Phil Wong and Joann Ariola are not. On the Governmental Operations Committee, chaired by Gale A. Brewer, three of seven members are sponsors: Brewer, Carl Wilson and Althea V. Stevens.

Also on the agenda. Int. 414, from Kevin C. Riley with 16 sponsors, would create a three-digit gun violence intervention hotline. Int. 667, from Nantasha M. Williams with 12 sponsors, would offer community service instead of civil penalties for certain littering violations. Both have waited since early this year.

What the Council has already asked. At the March 25 Finance hearing, Council Member Linda Lee read questions on behalf of Tiffany L. Cabán about plans to triple funding for mobile crisis teams. An administration official said the office's roughly $260 million came from moving existing offices under it, and that further needs were being evaluated (video at 3:54:30). At the June 1 NYPD budget hearing, Speaker Julie Menin asked whether any programs had shifted from the police department to the new office. The NYPD said none had, and that conversations about what might shift had not yet begun (37:00).

An August amNY editorial noted the office's roughly $260 million budget and said the Council's pending bill would make the agency answerable to both the mayor and the Council.

What's next

Friday's hearing is an oversight hearing on the Office of Community Safety and non-police approaches to violence, with the three bills heard alongside. Any committee vote would come at a later committee meeting, followed by the full Council. The next stated meetings are Nov. 12 and Nov. 19.

Video and a searchable transcript will be posted on the meeting page after the hearing.