Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order Thursday to create an Office of Community Safety and install a deputy mayor to lead it — a move he framed as a first step toward creating an innovative city agency to address violence and mental health emergencies.
“Today is a day of ambition, a day where we commit to approaching public safety with the complexity and the innovation that it deserves,” Mamdani said at a City Hall press conference announcing the new office.
The announcement is a significant moment in the first few months of Mamdani’s administration. During his campaign, Mamdani ran on creating an expansive new city agency that would expand a host of city programs to combat violence through civilian community groups. The department would also allow 911 operators to divert more emergency calls usually handled by police to social workers and other non-law enforcement responders, Mamdani said during his campaign.
But Thursday’s executive order does not create the standalone agency Mamdani promised; instead, it creates an office in City Hall that could be undone by a future mayor.
Mamdani told reporters he is still committed to creating a Department of Community Safety and noted that other agencies such as the Department of Homeless Services first began this way.
The office will include the Division of Neighborhood Safety, the Office to Prevent Gun Violence and the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, among other groups, according to the executive order.
It will be led by Renita Francois, who served in the de Blasio administration’s Office of Criminal Justice for years, Mamdani said. Francois, whose title will be first deputy mayor for community safety, will be the first Black person to serve at that level of leadership in the Mamdani administration.
“Our vision for safety is simple: Every New Yorker from Highbridge to Stapleton to Bushwick deserves to feel safe and be safe, and we will invest in the resources to ensure well-coordinated responses rooted in dignity and care, centered in community, and informed by the experiences of those closest to the solutions meet our fellow New Yorkers who need it most,” Francois said Thursday.
One of Francois' key duties will be to oversee the expansion of New York City's existing B-HEARD program, which allows mental health professionals and other non-law enforcement personnel to respond to some emergency calls in the city.
Mamdani said the executive order will give Francois the ability to make policy changes to the B-HEARD program, which he said has long been “kneecapped,” underfunded and under-supported.
Mamdani supporters said the move was an encouraging step in the mayor's ambitious plan to overhaul how the city responds to emergency mental health calls, and how city government works to curtail violence.
Alex Vitale, who served on Mamdani’s transition team, said elements of the proposed Department of Community Safety already exist in city government and this is a chance to better coordinate them.
“This new office is going to give us a chance to reach into those programs, better coordinate them, help them to be in line with what we know are best practices nationally,” Vitale said. “I think once we’ve taken some concrete steps there, we’ll be in a stronger position to expand those services and hopefully create a full-scale department.”
Erica Ford, a longtime antiviolence worker in the city, said she was encouraged by the Mamdani’s pick to lead the new office.
“This is like an answer to my prayer,” she said after the announcement. “Having a person like Renita who comes from us who comes historically from our work and understands the larger scope, it gives us the relief that we know we have a champion and advocate that’s a phone call away from the mayor.”
Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani’s chief of staff and closest adviser, said the administration had internal metrics it was using to help guide the new office's work. But she stressed that appointment of a deputy mayor to oversee this office should be understood as this administration’s commitment to putting community safety at the center of policymaking.
As scores of nonprofit leaders, violence interrupters and advocates for public safety reforms began to leave the building, Bisgaard-Church said their presence was a signal of their community's enthusiasm for this plan.
“I think we saw today a massive amount of support from people hungry for this, ready to support, and who also can bring us new expertise on what are the things we should be measuring in this unprecedented whole of government approach,” Bisgaard-Church said.
