{"id":391931,"date":"2026-11-03T09:46:53","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T09:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391931\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T09:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T09:46:53","slug":"seven-months-in-city-council-asks-mamdanis-community-safety-office-whats-actually-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391931\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven months in, City Council asks Mamdani\u2019s community safety office: What\u2019s actually new?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> has big plans for his Office of Community Safety<\/a>. But seven months after he created it, City Council members spent part of Friday\u2019s oversight hearing trying to establish what the office actually does beyond expanding programs the city already had.<\/p>\n

Public Safety Committee Chair Oswald Feliz raised the question twice, while Community Safety Commissioner Ayesha Delany-Brumsey<\/a> pointed to expanded services and closer coordination among existing city offices.<\/p>\n

She described those efforts as the foundation for new initiatives as the administration works with the Council on legislation to turn the office into a full-fledged department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on making sure we are expanding and strengthening the work that exists, because that will be the foundation for which we build out any new functions or any new initiatives as we expand and grow,\u201d Delany-Brumsey said.<\/p>\n

The exchange came during the Council\u2019s first oversight hearing dedicated to the office, which Mamdani established by executive order on March 19<\/a> as an initial step toward fulfilling his campaign promise to shift certain public safety responsibilities away from police and toward trained civilian responders.<\/p>\n

The office brought five existing entities under one umbrella, overseeing programs focused on gun violence prevention, mental health, domestic and gender-based violence, hate crimes and victim services.<\/p>\n

When Feliz initially asked what new functions the office had established, Delany-Brumsey cited cooperation between domestic violence and neighborhood safety officials on emergency housing transfers for crime victims and people at risk of retaliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile that isn\u2019t a new function, it is a new way of working together that makes those offices stronger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Feliz acknowledged the importance of that work but pressed again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were things that were already there; they\u2019re being expanded, but they were already in the works,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019m just wondering if there\u2019s been any new functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Council Member Oswald Feliz, Chair of the Committee on Public Safety. Photo\u00a0by Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit.<\/p>\n

The administration has invested an additional $67 million in community safety programs, bringing the office\u2019s combined fiscal year 2027 budget to approximately $271 million, according to Delany-Brumsey.<\/p>\n

Administration officials cited expanded mental health services for domestic violence survivors and the city\u2019s recent $4.8 million expansion of its Crisis Management System, first reported by amNewYork.<\/a> The funding will support 42 new positions providing violence prevention services in Bushwick, Harlem and Washington Heights\/Inwood.<\/p>\n

NYPD coordination and B-HEARD under scrutiny<\/p>\n

Council members also questioned how closely the new office is working with the NYPD. In June, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told lawmakers<\/a> that discussions about specific responsibilities and coordination between the two operations had not begun. City Hall pushed back at the time, saying Tisch and Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Renita Francois<\/a> had already scheduled a meeting.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Delany-Brumsey said OCS was now in daily contact with NYPD personnel and met weekly with police leadership. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams pressed her on whether that coordination extended to senior operational officials and regular CompStat crime strategy meetings.<\/p>\n

Delany-Brumsey acknowledged that her office does not regularly attend CompStat, although officials described receiving daily police alerts and coordinating with the NYPD on major events. The commissioner could not immediately recall when she last met with Tisch, saying only that it was sometime after she joined the administration in May.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers also examined B-HEARD, the city\u2019s existing mental health emergency response program, which sends emergency medical personnel and mental health professionals to certain 911 calls instead of police.<\/p>\n

Officials said about 27 FDNY EMS and NYC Health + Hospitals personnel completed integrated training earlier this month, the program\u2019s first such training since 2024.<\/p>\n

B-HEARD currently operates in 31 NYPD precincts, with the administration seeking to expand its reach. But the city still lacks comprehensive data on what happens to people after a B-HEARD response.<\/p>\n

Asked by Feliz whether the program tracks patients after connecting them with services, Delany-Brumsey said, \u201cWe don\u2019t yet have a metric where we track exactly what happens to people afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials said NYC Health + Hospitals workers conduct follow-up calls to check whether patients attended appointments or used referrals and whether they need additional support. The administration, they said, is working on a data-sharing agreement to better track longer-term outcomes.<\/p>\n

\"SevenCouncil Member Lincoln Restler, who is sponsoring legislation to establish a permanent Department of Community Safety. Photo\u00a0by Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The administration is meanwhile working with the City Council on legislation to turn OCS into a permanent Department of Community Safety as envisioned by Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Council Member Lincoln Restler said Friday that his legislation<\/a> to establish the department, Intro. 403, has 34 Council supporters. Delany-Brumsey confirmed that the administration is working with lawmakers on amendments, although she offered no specifics or timetable.<\/p>\n

For now, OCS still relies on other city agencies to handle its payroll, contracting, and other administrative functions. Delany-Brumsey said an interagency task force is working on the transition to an independent department. She noted that similar reorganizations in city government have taken years, though the administration wants to move as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the future agency would directly provide services or continue coordinating existing programs, she said it would need to do both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani has big plans for his Office of Community Safety. But seven months after he created…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[137094,111402,11745,141715,9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-391931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-ayesha-delany-brumsey","tag-b-heard","tag-community-safety","tag-mayoru2019s-office-of-community-safety","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}