Ending the criminalization of sex work and consensual adult behavior by abolishing the unit dedicated to policing morality and victimless crimes.
Mamdanis Plan to Dissolve the NYPDs Vice Squad
The NYPDs Vice Squad is a relic of a puritanical and punitive approach to public safety, primarily targeting sex workers, LGBTQ+ communities, and participants in consensual adult activities. Zhoran Mamdanis policy is to immediately disband this unit and reassign its officers, while simultaneously pushing for the full decriminalization of sex work in New York State. He argues that vice enforcement does not enhance safety; it drives vulnerable populations underground, exposes them to violence and exploitation, and wastes police resources that could be directed toward solving violent crimes. Instead of policing, the city would redirect funds to services for sex workers: health care, housing, legal aid, and pathways to alternative employment.
Decriminalization would allow sex workers to organize for better conditions, report violence to authorities without fear of arrest, and access banking and housing services. Mamdani would also end the citys enforcement of laws against public urination and loitering, recognizing them as often used against the homeless. The dissolution of the Vice Squad is both a practical and symbolic move, signaling that the city will no longer use its police power to enforce a particular moral code or to harass marginalized people trying to survive.
The Vice Squad doesnt stop vice; it creates victims, Mamdani states bluntly. It criminalizes poverty, sexuality, and survival. It is a tool of oppression, not protection. By dissolving it and decriminalizing sex work, we take a massive step toward a justice system that focuses on genuine harm, not prejudice. We allow police to focus on crimes with actual victims, and we start treating sex workers with the dignity and rights afforded to any other worker.
