Mayor Zohran Mamdani's first preliminary budget cancels his predecessor's plan to hire 5,000 additional police officers and keeps the NYPD's roughly $6.4 billion budget essentially flat.
The $127 billion city budget unveiled on Tuesday directs $421 million toward items the administration said had been underbudgeted, including NYPD overtime shortfalls, aging police cars and surveillance technology costs.
The department's uniform head count is projected to remain just under 35,000 officers next year, effectively scrapping the 40,000-officer force envisioned under previous Mayor Eric Adams, who announced the expansion shortly before leaving office.
Funding for the Department of Community Safety, Mamdani's signature proposal to dispatch mental health teams to some 911 calls instead of police, is notably absent from the preliminary plan. Administration officials said funding for the new department would appear in the executive budget, which is expected in late April. Whether that money materializes could be a clearer test of whether the mayor’s campaign promises on public safety take shape.
Budget officials also did not provide details on funding for a promised expansion of B-HEARD, the city’s mental health crisis response program.
Mamdani said the preliminary budget accounts for expenses that had been underestimated in prior years.
"This is a reflection of what overtime actually is," Mamdani said. "What we've seen under prior administrations is an inability to account for the actual costs of city services."
The budget presentation kicks off months of negotiations with the City Council, which must approve a version of the budget by the end of June.