Former New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told Newsmax that New York City should prepare for a smaller police department.
Kelly told “Saturday Report” that the reason is the mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. “It looks like Mr. Mamdani is going to reduce the size of the NYPD significantly,” Kelly explained.
“He wants to start another agency. It’s a community safety agency, but he wants it to be a billion-dollar agency.
“So the only place where that money is, is in the NYPD budget. And New York City police, their budget, 95% of it is personnel. So if you’re going to take a large amount of money out of the NYPD budget, it’s got to be a reduction in headcount.
“So that’s a given. How much? We still don’t know. But he [Mamdani] did say he wanted the new agency to be a billion-dollar agency.”
Kelly said it remains unclear what Mamdani will ultimately do once he takes office.
“We don’t know exactly what he’s going to do, but all indications are it’s not going to be good for the members of the NYPD,” Kelly said.
“He has said this many times. He has said the NYPD is racist. It’s biased, and it creates crimes.
“He was actually a supporter of defunding the police until he saw that that’s not going to help him get elected. And he backed off from that.
“So, yeah, we’re going to see something significant happen to the police department. And they’re going to have to see the policies of Mr. Mamdani.”
Kelly said officers in the NYPD are concerned about the future. “It’s a concern about [the] Civilian Complaint Review Board that Mr. Mamdani wants to be [in] charge of discipline in the NYPD and take the disciplinary power away from the police commissioner,” he said.
“So these are not good signs for the police officers. But we’re going to have to see. And I guess until January 1st, because he’s not really tipping his hand very much.”
Several large police departments around the country have begun recruiting programs to draw current NYPD officers to their departments, knowing many will be leaving due to Mamdani’s policies.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also begun a social media advertising campaign in New York to entice officers to become federal agents.
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