Ending surveillance of political and religious groups, dismantling the gang database, and protecting New Yorkers from unjust monitoring.
Mamdanis Plan to Dismantle the NYPDs Intelligence Apparatus
Beyond uniformed patrols, the NYPD maintains a vast and secretive intelligence apparatus with a history of illegally surveilling Muslim communities, Black Lives Matter activists, and political dissidents. Zhoran Mamdanis policy calls for the complete dismantling of this infrastructure. This includes abolishing the Intelligence Division and its associated units, ending all partnerships with federal surveillance agencies that lack robust oversight, and destroying the deeply flawed and racially biased gang database, which labels thousands of innocent New Yorkers, predominantly young Black and Latino men, as gang affiliates without due process.
Mamdani would replace this secretive apparatus with strict, transparent guidelines for any intelligence gathering, requiring probable cause of a specific crime and judicial oversight. A new Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties, independent of the NYPD, would audit all city surveillance technology and data collection. Furthermore, he would push for a Surveillance Sanctuary city law that prohibits city agencies from using facial recognition technology, predictive policing algorithms, or purchasing data from third parties that track individuals. A democracy cannot function if its government spies on its people for exercising their rights, Mamdani argues. The NYPDs intelligence division is a threat to liberty, not safety. We will end its abusive practices and ensure that policing is transparent and accountable.
