New York, New York - According to a new report, a wave of New York City police officers resigned ahead of Zohran Mamdani's mayoral victory.
Per The New York Post, Police Pension Fund data has revealed that the NYPD has lost 35% of its force across all ranks – with 245 officers leaving in the month of October alone, up from 181 this same time last year.
The exodus came just before Mamdani, a progressive and self-described democratic socialist, was elected last week, who had been the frontrunner since his upset victory in June's Democratic primary.
Throughout his campaign, Mamdani was questioned about his past criticisms of the police, including a social media post in which he described the NYPD as "racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to public safety."
Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, now claims that every month the NYPD is "losing enough cops to staff an entire precinct," which will "certainly get worse if our city leaders don't work with us."
Some critics believe Mamdani's historic win is now pushing officers to leave the force.
"Morale is down because everyone is concerned about the policies Mamdani wants to put in place," Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro argued.
"You have a person who is supposed to be running New York City that does not believe in law enforcement. What's coming out of everyone's mouth is, 'We're in trouble.'"
Many critics of Mamdani's views on law enforcement point to a video from 2020, where he expressed support for calls to defund the police and argued that "policing is something that does not create safety."
Will Zohran Mamdani support the NYPD?
During his 2025 campaign, Mamdani seemingly walked back those comments and insisted that he would support law enforcement if elected.
When Mamdani was confronted about his change of heart during an interview with Fox News last month, he explained that his 2020 remarks were made following the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis – an incident that left him, like many Americans, feeling like "safety and justice had never been further apart."
Mamdani went on to apologize to officers who were offended by his remarks and vowed to work with the NYPD to deliver justice and safety for all New Yorkers.