Mayor Mamdani to sign order creating Office of Community Safety as first step on mental health response pledge

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to sign an executive order Thursday afternoon creating a new Office of Community Safety — the first formal step toward fulfilling one of his core campaign promises, according to a copy of the order reviewed by amNewYork.

Mamdani made the creation of a Department of Community Safety a central campaign promise, pitching it as a way to reduce the city’s reliance on police in responding to mental health emergencies and other non-criminal crises. Pressure on the administration to move faster intensified after the Jan. 25 police shooting of Jabez Chakraborty, a 22-year-old Queens man whose family had sought help during a mental health crisis.