The proposal by New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidate, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, to create a new “Department of Community Safety” is an ideological fantasy that, if implemented, would accelerate the unraveling of public safety in the nation’s largest city.

After two decades as an NYPD detective, and founding a global security firm, I know what works when it comes to public safety, and what doesn’t. 

Let’s be clear: The NYPD is in the midst of a full-blown staffing crisis. Cops are leaving the job in record numbers, morale is at an all-time low, and the pipeline of qualified recruits is drying up. 

With thousands of officers expected to leave the department this year alone, we’re staring down a future with fewer boots on the ground, slower response times, and less proactive policing.

Now imagine pouring gasoline on that fire with a plan that calls for cutting police involvement even further — and replacing it with social workers and bureaucrats. That’s what Mr. Mamdani is proposing.

His $1.1 billion Department of Community Safety would sideline the NYPD from critical situations, including mental health crises and subway incidents, and instead send out teams of peer counselors, EMTs, and unarmed “navigators.” 

I’ve responded to dozens of emotionally disturbed person calls. These scenes can turn violent in an instant. The idea that we should send civilians into volatile, unpredictable situations without trained officers as backup is a recipe for disaster.

Mr. Mamdani likes to cite models like a program at Eugene, Oregon, known by the acronym Cahoots — but Eugene has 177,000 residents. That’s barely one-fiftieth the size of New York City. It’s the size of one NYPD precinct coverage area. What works in a small college town can’t be airlifted into a city of 9 million without serious, potentially deadly consequences.

The plan would also gut subway safety by removing uniformed officers and replacing them with “outreach workers” in 100 stations. I’ve worked at those stations. I’ve seen what happens when there’s no visible police presence. Fare evasion becomes armed robbery. 

Disorder turns into violence. Outreach workers, no matter how well-meaning, are not a substitute for trained officers who can respond immediately to threats against New Yorkers.

And while violence interruption programs like the Crisis Management System have a role to play, Mr. Mamdani’s plan leans on them too hard. Tripling CMS funding while de-emphasizing law enforcement is a mistake. 

You need both outreach and enforcement. You need people who can talk and people who can make arrests when talking fails. You can’t mediate your way out of gang violence.

Mr. Mamdani’s plan also baselessly assumes that a new bureaucracy can effectively coordinate existing city services. The DCS would absorb functions from multiple agencies while creating new layers of administration. 

Having worked within city government, I know that more bureaucracy typically means slower service and confused chains of command — exactly what you don’t want during emergencies. Mr. Mamdani claims his plan will be cost-neutral through “government efficiencies,” but provides no specifics. 

The $455 million in “new funding needs” will inevitably come from taxpayers. Meanwhile, the plan’s emphasis on peer counselors and community navigators creates jobs that, while well-intentioned, cannot substitute for trained police officers when seconds count.

Expanding mental health services, funding violence intervention programs and addressing root causes of crime are all worthy goals, but these efforts must supplement, not replace, effective policing. We need more police officers, not fewer. We need faster response times, not more bureaucracy.

Mr. Mamdani’s plan doesn’t just miss the mark — it ignores the crisis at our doorstep. The NYPD is already stretched thin, and the signal this sends to our rank-and-file is unmistakable: you’re not going to be supported.

Public safety isn’t a social experiment. It’s a basic right. Mr. Mamdani’s ideas might look good in a progressive pamphlet, but what New Yorkers need is proven results and immediate protection. We must not dismantle the systems that have helped make New York the safest big city in America.